Formalising disciplinary literacy teaching in primary science through a writing-to-learn approach

Abstract

Disciplinary literacy is the ability to use the specialised language and representations of a discipline to construct knowledge and participate effectively in the discipline. Despite its central role in accessing scientific knowledge (Norris & Phillips, 2003), disciplinary literacy is seldom taught explicitly in schools. In recent years, there is an increasing awareness of this problem in the educational community. For instance, the Common Core State Standards in the U.S. explicitly list several reading and writing standards for literacy in science and technical subjects for various grade levels, such as writing explanatory texts and maintaining the norms and conventions of scientific writing. In Singapore, the importance of disciplinary literacy is also beginning to gain traction in MOE and NIE (ELIS, 2013).