Promoting young children's scientific literacy as a dynamic practice

Abstract

In this chapter, we draw on Green’s (1988) three-dimensional model of literacy and propose a framework for researching and enhancing children’s engagement and learning opportunities in science from a dynamic literacy perspective. The chapter shows how early science education that draws on multiliteracies pedagogy can provide children with rich opportunities to engage in operative, cultural and critical dimensions of scientific literacy embedded in children’s life-worlds. The chapter demonstrates how young children benefit from understanding how they can actively participate in the existing scientific culture as it occurs in children’s life-worlds. Regarding scientific literacy in the framework of dynamic literacy has the potential to offer cross-disciplinary viewpoints on science education.