Science teaching - scientific literacy in a school perspective

The article highlights professional teachers' understandingsof what they see as the mostimportant contentin science education. The study is based on conversations with professional teachers andexplorehow they understand what isthe most central contentin science education. Their understandingsare related to the importance of science in the society and to the language's importance to students' learning opportunities. The resultsof the study's interviews are analyzed usingBasil Bernstein's concept of the horizontal and vertical discourseas a framework, which demonstrates the opportunities for pupils toapproachscientific content based on a contextual understanding. How science is taught is an important question in the aspect of students comingfrom different socioeconomic conditions and withdifferent conceptions of the outside world and the science schooldiscourse. In the present study professional teachersstressthe importance of a holistic understanding of the content in science, the methodical aspects in science educationandtheconsequencesof science and technology developmentin particular. Tobe science literatein a classroomcontext means that the students will get the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identifyquestions and to draw evidencebased conclusions in order to understand and help make decisions about the natural world and the changes made to it through human activity