Page 40 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: Science, 2008 (revised)

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | science
cultures around the world, as well as the impact of technologies or technological processes in use in different countries in relation to the food chain, the environment, or the ozone layer. Expectations in the curriculum encourage students to look at the perspectives and world views of various cultures, including Aboriginal cultures, as they relate to scientific issues.
Access to computers should be monitored and a range of software applications provided. A problem-solving approach can benefit students who are having difficulties with materi- als or equipment. Because access to equipment at home will vary, it is important to offer challenges for or support to students whose levels of prior knowledge differ.
CRITICAL THINKING AND CRITICAL LITERACy IN SCIENCE
Critical thinking is the process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, and/or make a judgement about what is sensible or reasonable to believe or do. Critical thinking includes skills such as questioning, predicting, hypothesizing, analysing, synthesizing, examining opinions, identifying values and issues, detecting bias, and distinguishing between alternatives.
Students use critical thinking skills in science when they assess, analyse, and/or evaluate the impact of something on society and the environment; when they form an opinion about something and support that opinion with logical reasons; or when they create personal plans of action with regard to making a difference. In order to do these things, students need to examine the opinions and values of others, detect bias, look for implied meaning in their readings, and use the information gathered to form a personal opinion or stance.
As they work to achieve the STSE expectations, students are frequently asked to identify the implications of an action, activity, or process. As they gather information from a variety of sources, they need to be able to interpret what they are reading, to look for instances of bias, and to determine why that source might express that particular bias.
In developing the skills of scientific investigation (inquiry/research skills), students must ask appropriate questions to frame their research, interpret information, and detect bias. Depending on the topic, they may be required to consider the values and perspectives of a variety of groups and individuals.
Critical literacy is the capacity for a particular type of critical thinking that involves looking beyond the literal meaning of a text to determine what is present and what is missing, in order to analyse and evaluate the text’s complete meaning and the author’s intent. Critical literacy goes beyond conventional critical thinking by focusing on issues related to fairness, equity, and social justice. Critically literate students adopt a critical stance, asking what view of the world the text advances and whether they find this view acceptable.
In science, students who are critically literate are able, for example, to read or view reports from a variety of sources on a common issue. They are able to assess how fairly the facts have been reported, what biases might be contained in each report and why that might be, how the content of the report was determined and by whom, and what might have been left out of the report and why. These students would then be equipped to produce their own interpretation of the issue.