A Literature Review on the Nature and Goals of Scientific Literacy

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Abstract

This study focuses on exploring all descriptions of the concept of scientific literacy that researchers proposed in the last two decades. In particular, it aims to identify the new trends about: the nature of scientific literacy and the goal of scientific literacy. A literature review of published surveys over the last twenty years that describe the meaning of scientific literacy was conducted. The results showed that the nature of the scientific literacy’s concept consists of five dimensions (possession of scientific knowledge, scientific knowledge for everyday use, science in social context, positive attitudes for science, and collectivity of scientific literacy) with goals that were distinguished for individual and social purposes.