Merging fact with fiction

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Abstract

The development of scientific literacy is an important educational priority (OECD 2006, Rennie & Goodrum 2007, Tytler, 2007), driven by concerns over the results of international assessments of science student achievement, and by growing evidence of students' waning interest in school science, particularly in the middle years of schooling.

Recent research suggests that students' scientific literacy may be improved by having them participate in short story writing tasks on scientific themes. In a recent two-year study, Ritchie, Tomas & Tones (2010) investigated the learning experiences of Year 6 students as they wrote a series of short stories that merge scientific information about the socioscientific issue of biosecurity with narrative storylines. The study found that writing these 'hybridised' short stories enhanced students' familiarity with biosecurity issues, helped them to develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts, and improved their interest in science.

In her subsequent doctoral study (Tomas 2010), the current author refined and extended this intervention with 152 students in Year 9, a time when students begin to make subject choices that determine their career paths.

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• Merging fact with fiction. (deposited 09 Dec 2011 08:44) [Currently Displayed]