Toward to the Definition of 'Scientific Literacy'

`과학적 소양'의 정의를 향하여

Since the term, 'scientific literacy' was introduced by P. D. Hurd in 1958, it has been used as a term, representing major goals in science education. In Korea, the term 'scientific literacy' was used in the statement of the summative objective of the 2007 science reformed curriculum. But in various educational contexts m which teachers and researchers works, the definition of the term has not been used consistently. This phenomena would be interpreted as showing limits of the term describing the goals of science education. This study examined the historical change in the meaning of the term in purpose of trying to anchor the definition. In this study, the changing period was divided into before introducing the term and after. The after era was divided into the period of confusing and anchoring in the meaning, and the period of expanding the meaning. Especially, after science as intellectual ability was conceptualized in science education communities, the meaning of scientific literacy was partially confused. In current time, as the concepts of language in cognitive science influenced the use of language in science education, the trends of expending the meaning of scientific literacy has been grasped in science education community.