German Teachers’ Views on Promoting Scientific Media Literacy Using Advertising in the Science Classroom

A large part of the media landscape surrounding us consists of advertising. Therefore, skills for critically coping with advertising are indispensable. Students need to develop such skills for evaluating messages and facts from advertisements. They also need to learn about the mechanisms behind how advertisements are created and used to influence the public. Today, advertising for many products has a strong scientific component. However, learning with and about advertising does not play a prominent role in school science education. To date, advertising is almost exclusively discussed and evaluated within the humanities and social sciences, especially language education. The scientific components of advertising are not taken into account in these subjects. Engaged science teachers might prove to be the key to innovation when it comes to media education in the science classroom. This study explores both the opinions of German science teachers on the importance of scientific media literacy and their attitudes to implementing teaching units covering advertising in their science classes. Semistructured interviews with 12 secondary science teachers were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two main types of teachers were identified, who have completely different views towards learning with and about advertising in science education.