Critical Literacy

I came across an interesting article at Discover Magazine's blog site, and thought I'd share it with you. This is a very interesting article and the author has some excellent comments, but I think it misses the point ever so slightly. The focus should be on critical literacy in general, and students taught to apply skills of critical evaluation to all sources of information, whether science, news or otherwise. 

Also, I believe that students (and people in general) need to be encouraged to be active learners throughout their lives in order to be active and effective citizens. If, for example, we don't know enough about the scientific issues that are so important in politics and society today (to use the example from the following article), we need to be willing to research those issues ourselves and engage with them critically in order to form informed and intelligent positions. An understanding of and ability to apply critical literacy skills can help to achieve this. We as a society are too complacent, and much of this can be addressed through our education system.

What’s More Important: Science Literacy or News Literacy?
By Keith Kloor | February 1, 2013 11:21 am
That’s not really a fair question, because they’re both vital. But if I was the administrator at a university and a foundation offered me funding to establish a program curriculum for one or the other–which would result in a mandatory class for all in-coming freshmen–I would choose news literacy. I’ll explain why in a minute.

First, let me say outright that I am a champion of science education. I want my two sons to not only be scientifically literate, I want them to enjoy science. They are now in kindergarten and third grade, respectively, but since their pre-school days, both of them have taken after-school science classes and have attended science camp during the summers. The person who runs the after-school classes and summer camp is an elementary school science teacher in my neighborhood. His name is Carmelo Piazza. He is a rock star. I know what a formative influence he is from my own experience as a parent of two children who have been learning science from him for several years.

I also know that Piazza has a lasting influence on students. Some months ago, I was in my local Starbucks, working on an article. Two college students were sitting next to me. Piazza walked in and one of them recognized him. She jumped up with a big smile and introduced herself (“Do you remember me, I was in your science class…”). Piazza said he did, they chitchatted, then he got his coffee and left. After Piazza walked out the door, his old student turned to her friend and said, “Best science teacher ever.”

So I get how important science is and how important it is to have really good science teachers. Some of our biggest public debates involve science (such as climate change and genetic engineering). An informed citizenry can only help raise the level of public understanding on these subjects. That said, we are coming to learn that our knowledge of some politically charged issues (like climate change and genetic engineering) is filtered through our worldviews and predispositions. This complicates the discourse and makes facts less relevant that we would like.

Still, if critical thinking is crucial to our understanding of the world, then I believe that skill has wider application for all of us as daily consumers of news. Being able to properly assess the information stream we get via twitter, Facebook and the news media is essential. That’s why I’m a big fan of Stony Brook University’s Center for News Literacy. From its website:

News Literacy is the ability to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports and news sources. Students today are bombarded with blogs, “tweets,” rumors, gossip, opinion, punditry, hype, spin, bias, propaganda, and advertising, all vying with journalism in their claims to be credible. News Literacy is an essential skill if today’s high school and college students are to become not just intelligent consumers of news, but effective citizens.

Here’s a good write-up of a course at Stony Brook that teaches news literacy to its students. This is the sort of class that should be mandated at every high school and university....

Article sourced from: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2013/02/01/whats-more-important-science-literacy-or-news-literacy/#.URBPEo6UAb1