Scientific literacy is the ability to use the scientific process of logical deduction in everyday life. This has made it very important in modern society ever since the 16th century. As Hurd (1997) states, important figures throughout history such as Thomas Jefferson, James Wilkinson and Herbert Spencer have advocated for an education that propagates scientific literacy as an important building block of society. However, the method in which this propagation should take place has been rigorously debated. There are two sides to the debate, the first being the teachers who use typical teaching mechanisms to advocate scientific literacy while the other side are the teachers who prefer the unconventional instead (Pandian & Balraj, 2010). Textbooks …show more content…
The readers are considered the authority because they have the resources to research the topics covered in any popular science text and can have open discussions with the writers (Cooter & Pumfrey, 1994). Hence, students easily absorb this information as they feel it is more engadging than textbooks (Creech & Hale, 2006). The information that these students absorb also allow them to gain an understanding of the larger picture on scientific literacy. The connections that these popular science texts make with the real world allow students to observe and learn. This will lead the students to make relations of their own, cementing the idea of scientific literacy in their minds (Grant & Lapp, 2011). Popular science texts are implemented in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which score well in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) performs the PISA every three years. It is done by testing the students of various countries in three aspects of literacy, namely mathematics, reading and science. The results are then compared across countries (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development