Abstract The primary focus of this article is to illustrate how teachers can use contemporary
socio-scientific issues to teach students about nature of scientific knowledge as
well as address the science subject matter embedded in the issues. The article provides an
initial discussion about the various aspects of nature of scientific knowledge that are
addressed. It is important to remember that the aspects of nature of scientific knowledge
are not considered to be a comprehensive list, but rather a set of important ideas for
adolescent students to learn about scientific knowledge. These ideas have been advocated
as important for secondary students by numerous reform documents internationally. Then,
several examples are used to illustrate how genetically based socio-scientific issues can be
used by teachers to improve students’ understandings of the discussed aspects of nature of
scientific knowledge.
1 Introduction
The phrase ‘‘scientific literacy’’ has been around for over half a century and its connection
to an understanding of nature of scientific knowledge and scientific inquiry was, perhaps,
most formalized by the work of Showalter (1975) and by a National Science Teachers
Association position statement on science-technology-society (NSTA 1982). According to
the National Research Council (1996), the scientifically literate individual possesses the
knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes that are necessary for
making informed decisions on personal and societal issues. Although the aforementioned
citations are from a US author and a US professional organization, scientific literacy has
become a primary goal of science education throughout the world (Roberts 2007). Beyond
the aforementioned documents’ general descriptions of scientific literacy, one finds much
variability in the specific lists of attributes that characterize a scientifically literate person.
For example, Roberts (2007) in his exhaustive review of how literacy is conceptualized
within the science education community found two different ‘‘visions’’ of literacy, often