Combatting Pseudoscience: A Science And Health Literacy Workshop To Improve Scientific Literacy In 16-Year-Old Students In Malaysia

The rise of dubious medical practice and anti-vaccination groups in Malaysia suggests that the public needs to be equipped with the scientific literacy skills to navigate the healthcare landscape. Additionally, the overall result of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009+ for Malaysia suggests that the national scientific literacy levels of 16-year-old Malaysian students to be below the international and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average. Consequently, the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) was introduced to form part of the national English language evaluation in 2013 to encourage creative and critical thinking. In this editorial piece, I describe a youth-led intervention that may be more effective at increasing scientific literacy to combat pseudoscience in Malaysian youth especially in bridging the education inequality gap in Malaysia.