From fragmentation to convergence: Information-Scientific-Cognitive Literacy

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the specificities and limits of information, scientific, and cognitive literacies, articulating them within an integrated literacy perspective.

Method: This theoretical essay adopts an analytical and interpretative approach, grounded in a narrative literature review across the fields of Information Science, Science Education, and Cognitive and Social Psychology. The study employs a historical analysis of the three literacies to examine their transformations and identify conceptual and educational gaps.

Results: The analysis indicates that, although conceptually expanded, information, scientific, and cognitive literacies remain insufficient when considered in isolation, lacking mutual articulation to support qualified public deliberation. These gaps hinder the development of individuals capable of deliberating in contexts characterized by uncertainty, misinformation, and asymmetries of expertise.

Conclusions: Information-Scientific-Cognitive Literacy emerges as a strategic competence aimed at integrating access, evaluation, and critical use of information; understanding the nature of science and engaging in sociotechnical deliberation; and mobilizing mindware and metacognitive regulation of thinking. The development of qualified public judgment constitutes a central pillar for citizenship in the twenty-first century, in a context marked by converging crises in the informational, scientific, and epistemic domains.