Gathering scientific community and lay people: Scientific literacy promotion project
Submitted by:
Matilde Gonçalves
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper presentation is twofold: 1) to present some of the results of the project “Scientific Literacy Promotion” (PLC) funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal) and 2) to prospect future research based on the results achieved in the PLC.
The presentation is structured in three moments. At first, a brief reflection on the textual models of scientific diffusion will be made. Choosing a predominantly qualitative and interpretive approach, the reflection will be based on studies recently developed in Textual Linguistics (Gonçalves & Miranda 2007, Coutinho & Miranda 2009, Gonçalves 2011, 2018) and will be illustrated with the analysis of current Portuguese press texts. In this first moment, the fluctuation between scientific literacy and science communication will be demonstrated by the diversity of the classes of texts that participate in the practices of democratization of science and by the multiplicity of terms involved (dissemination, diffusion, popularization, promotion). Secondly, a didactic device suitable to Basic and Secondary Education - the didactic model of genres of scientific dissemination - will be presented, inspired by works enrolled in the area of Didactics of Languages, oriented to the process of appropriation of textual genres in its components, textual and grammatical (Dolz, Noverraz & Schneuwly 2004, Cunha & Jorge 2011, Jorge 2014, Coutinho, Tanto & Luís 2015, Gonçalves & Jorge (org.), 2018). In the third and final stage, future research possibilities will be explored with the results achieved in the PLC.
Based on the assumption that the construction of scientific knowledge is made in and through texts, we believe that the linguistic and textual characterization of the genres used to communicate science is not only assumed to be a way for the knowledge of the different social practices of science communication, but also contributes to the promotion of an approximation between the scientific community and lay people.
Scientific literacy, didactic transposition, textual genre
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