Mind the Gap: Looking for Evidence-Based Practice of Science Literacy for All in Science Teaching Journals

Science literacy for all is the central goal of science education reforms, and there is a growing importance of the language arts in science. Furthermore, there are strong calls for teacher professionalism and self-directed professional learning that involve evidence-based best practices. This raises questions about whether science teaching journals' recommendations are anchored to high-quality evidence. We found that (a) most National Science Teacher Association journals' science literacy recommendations have weak or no evidence base and (b) those with evidence reference teaching journals, teacher resource books, and literacy education more often than science education research. We concluded that all participants in the knowledge production cycle and transfer process-authors, editors, and reviewers-need to encourage evidence-based practices anchored to ongoing reforms and to literacy and science education research.