Scientific Literacy Development through Cultural-historical Lens: A Theoretical Analysis

Scientific literacy in early years is how children develop their scientific knowledge and apply it in everyday situations (Roberts, 2007). The cultural-historical theory allows us to understand the process of developing scientific literacy among children in a holistic way, as this theory emphasises understanding children’s development concerning their social-cultural activities (Vygotsky, 1966, 1978, 1987, 1998). Developing scientific literacy in the early years of play-based activities using the cultural-historical lens is still yet to be understood. Through a scoping review and articulating the theoretical lens, this paper discusses how three concepts of cultural-historical theory, such as children’s culture, context and environment, Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) and everyday concept and scientific concept (Vygotsky, 1987), contribute to promoting scientific literacy through play-based activities in the early years. It is found that children transform the meaning of objects during play (Vygotsky, 1966), and culture-conscious planning and play activities help them develop their science and scientific knowledge (Sikder & Fleer, 2018), which could gradually develop their scientific literacy. Children also develop their higher mental functions with the help of more knowledgeable others, which creates the ZPD (Veresov, 2006; Vygotsky, 1978; Vygotsky, 1998). Educators and skilled partners help children with scaffolding to extend and develop their complex skills, such as scientific literacy (Briner, 1999). In addition, play-based everyday concepts develop their scientific concept by creating children’s own reflections and moving from concrete to abstract form. Conversely, the gained science concepts from their everyday play help shape developing children’s everyday concepts by moving from abstract to concrete and increasing the generalisation of meaning as a dialectical process (Vygotsky, 1987), which eventually develops their scientific literacy in the early years.