I realised that I know very little about how the education system operates in the western states of Australia (we are very East-centric over here, are we not?), and after some investigation discovered an amazing example of ELPC 2 (Ehanced Learning in Professional Contexts 2) in action!
On the education website of South Australia I found the list of subjects that can be studied in the SACE (SA Certificate of Education), and then the list of sciences, and therein found the Subject Outline for Geology (yes, they have Geology!). This document contained, amongst other things, the following headings:
Literacy in Geology
Numeracy in Geology
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge, Cultures, and Perspectives
Amazing! It goes on to say that literacy in geology includes the following capabilities:
• communicate within and beyond the geological community using the terminology and
conventions of geology
• access and critically read and summarise geological texts
• summarise geological information using formats appropriate to an audience
• select and use formats appropriate to their purpose and audience
• develop and display skills in the use of web-based presentations and visual, written,
and oral texts.
How can literacy be a distraction from our core business as teachers when its role and importance in a science subject is so explicitly detailed? This document explains not only the ways in which literacy is relevant to, in this instance, the study of geology, but by simply being mentioned in the Subject Outline its profile has been raised.
It is very heartening to read such demystifying documents in public circulation, as the awareness of both the teacher and the general populace can be influenced by them. Addressing the cross-disciplinary nature of literacy and the flow-on effects that low literacy levels can therefore engender becomes just a mite simpler when the education system recognises its importance, too.
– For Science!
Synergistic Bonding in the Classroom! 