MARCIA C. LINN
Graduate School of Education
University of California, Berkeley

Virtual Communities: When Do They Succeed?

Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning
Edited by Sasha A. Barab, Rob Kling, and James H. Gray. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 478 pp. Paper, $29.99.

Although supporting the understanding of science content knowledge as traditionally conceptualized (i.e., specific facts, concepts, and ideas as articulated by many state standards) is important if we are to promote scientific literacy in youth, other goals consistent with contemporary notions of scientific literacy may be more educationally significant. The everyday world presents an array of decision-making opportunities wherein people must contemplate complex problems with ethical, economic, social, and scientific premises, issues, and implications. Scientific literacy involves using scientific concepts, methods, and tools to meaningfully interrogate these socioscientific issues. Although most of us would agree that being scientifically literate involves more than knowing facts, the current obsession with standard test performance, the challenges of teachers creating and supporting rich learning environments that support socioscientific inquiry, and the dominant cultural model of science as the exclusive domain of an elite group of individuals make it challenging to engage children in socioscientific investigations.