Developing a pedagogy to support science for health literacy

Abstract

Many health issues are socio-scientific issues impacting on the social and economic wellbeing of communities, and adolescent education should facilitate the development of lifelong learning skills that will support health literacy. This requires a pedagogical approach that develops an understanding of the science and social issues underpinning the determinants of health, and the skills to access and interpret information to make informed judgements about health and wellbeing at an individual, family and community level. Health literacy cannot be isolated from science literacy, but they are rarely connected in the literature and we outline suggested components of a bridging pedagogy which supports 'science for health literacy'. We focus on the learning opportunities afforded by the current global non-communicable disease (NCD) epidemic, an issue of significant and growing concern that remains seriously under-represented in school curricula.