The current paper is a project that was designed to enhance early secondary students’ scientific literacy by creating classroom opportunities for critical thinking. Critical thinking is the ultimate purpose of many Western schools as they help students mature into responsible citizens. The study investigates how critical thinking can improve students’ scientific literacy. The study is conducted in England and focuses on the challenge of introducing a philosophy-based approach that complements other methods of learning science. It focuses on implementing philosophical/scientific discussions in the classroom in order to: 1) help students become more competent and confident when using scientific language in the spoken form and 2) help the students enhance their analytical skills of thinking, when presented with a contemporary news stories that contain scientific information.

Scientific literacy is a flexible aspiration; it may be as limited as understanding the scientific words contained in a news article, or expanded to require students to demonstrate an understanding of articles using scientific language and symbols in both written and spoken forms. The latter is much more challenging to accomplish. The latter, of course, is much more challenging to accomplish. The value of using philosophy to attain this degree of literacy in chemical understanding is exemplified by Woody (2013) whose examination of the Law of Ideal Gases as a chemical principle also led to students exploring philosophical questions. The importance of Woody’s approach was that while analysing the various explanations the students were also required to draw upon “deep intuitions” (2013, p. 1573). When opportunities are presented for deeper, reflective thinking, the exchange of ideas and thus in their exploration, students have the chance for “active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey, 1997, p. 6); and the development of the kind of thinking that “is aware of its causes and consequences,” (Lipmann, 2003, p. 35).

Dewey, J. (1997). How we think. Online: Courier Dover Publications. Hodson, D. (2009). Teaching and Learning about Science: Language, Theories, Methods, History, Traditions and Values. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Lipmann, M. (2003). Thinking in Education. New York: Cambridge University Press. Woody, A. I. (2013). How is the Ideal Gas Law Explanatory?, Science & Education, 22(7): 1563-1580.