Energy literacy for all? Exploring whether prior interest and energy knowledge mediate energy literacy development in a modern socio-scientific museum exhibition

Combining the inherent strengths of school teaching and museum exhibitions on socio-scientific issues could be a complementary approach to prepare students in a holistic and reasonably time-effective way for major future challenges. However, at present it is not known how effective these exhibitions really are, nor to what extent topic interest and school-based knowledge would prove useful for learning in such exhibitions. This study examines these questions in the context of the energy transition from fossil to sustainable energy-sources as a current socio-scientific issue. We investigated how a visit to a modern socio-scientific museum exhibition implementing a multitude of perspectives associated with the energy transition fosters students’ critical energy literacy; and we explored how students’ development of energy literacy was influenced by their prior interest in the topic of the energy transition and conceptual knowledge of energy. Results showed a partial but significant increase in students’ critical energy literacy and that this increase was not related to prior topic interest but was mediated by students’ conceptual knowledge of energy. These findings suggest that modern socio-scientific exhibitions can indeed be a valuable resource for students to develop their critical scientific literacy, building on the conceptual knowledge currently taught in the classroom.