Reconceptualizing nature-of-science education in the age of social media

Abstract

Individuals are increasingly relying on social media as their primary source of scientific information. Science education needs to adapt. Nature of science (NOS) education is already widely accepted as essential to scientific literacy and to an informed public. We argue that NOS now needs to also include the NOS communication: its mediation, mechanisms, and manipulation. Namely, students need to learn about the epistemics of communicative practices, both within science (as a model) and in society. After profiling the current media landscape, we consider the implications of recent major studies on science communication for science education in the 21st century. We focus in particular on communicative patterns prominent in social media: algorithms to aggregate news, filter bubbles, echo chambers, spirals of silence, false-consensus effects, fake news, and intentional disinformation. We claim that media literacy is now essential to a complete view of the NOS, or “Whole Science.” We portray that new content as an extension of viewing science as a system of specialized experts, with mutual epistemic dependence, and the social and communicative practices that establish trust and credibility.