Theory of science education by S.I. Hessen and modern conception of scientific literacy

In the literature, the concept of science education by S.I. Hessen is scarcely described, but at present it deserves close attention due to a number of reasons: the need to increase the level of scientific literacy of the Russian population; the absence of a generally accepted concept of scientific literacy in Russian pedagogy; the need to distinguish between the concepts of “natural science literacy” and “scientific literacy”; lack of a reasonable model for the formation of scientific literacy in the education process. The purpose of the study is to determine the correlation between the concepts of “natural science literacy” and “scientific literacy” and to define the significance of the practical implementation of scientific education proposed by S.I. Hessen in modern conditions. The objectives of the study are to compare the modern concept of scientific literacy with the theory of science education offered by S.I. Hessen and to determine the theoretical contribution of this theory to the problem of distinguishing between the concepts of “natural science literacy” and “scientific literacy”. I compared the main provisions of the theory of science education with the concept of scientific literacy, presented in the scientific works of Norman Lederman, professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and with the framework documents of the international PISA study. The author revealed the similarity of the main provisions of the theory of science education developed by S.I. Hessen, and modern pragmatic concepts of scientific literacy. This conclusion allowed us to rely in our study on the philosophical and anthropological approach. The author substantiated the distinction between two types of literacy: scientific literacy and natural science literacy. The hierarchical relationship of types of literacy was revealed. The author proposed a model of the structure of scientific literacy based on five competencies.