SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR DECISION-MAKING AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Citizens are often required to make decisions about socioscientific is sues in a climate characterized by conflict within both the scientific community and the larger society. Central to the process of decisionm aking is a critical examination of the relevant scientific knowledge i nvolved. Individuals capable of performing this task can be considered scientifically literate in a decisionmaking sense. In this article we explore two ways of critically examining scientific knowledge in the context of a current socioscientific dispute: NASA's Galileo Mission t o Jupiter. The two approaches we outline, termed the positivist and so cial constructivist positions, are examined in terms of their inherent views concerning the nature of scientific knowledge, in particular th eir use of constitutive and contextual values when evaluating knowledg e claims. Because the social constructivist position acknowledges the importance of contextual values, it provides citizens with accessible standards for evaluating scientific knowledge claims. The positivist p osition, on the other hand, relies on constitutive values which we sho w are normally inaccessible to ordinary citizens. The positivist posit ion, however, is most closely associated with the predominant social i ssues approach to science-technology-society (STS) education. Implicat ions for STS education of adopting the social constructivist position as the basis of scientific literacy for decisionmaking are explored. ( C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.