Assessment and analysis of the level of natural science literacy of students

Abstract

Introduction. Today, the problem of functional literacy is on the current scientific agenda and is the object of numerous studies, socio-political manipulations and pedagogical influences. Natural-science literacy is most actively studied along with mathematical and reading literacy. The assessment of the quality of education is, in essence, a mechanism for identifying deficits in the education system itself. In this context, the purpose of the article is to analyze the level of development of natural-science literacy of students of secondary vocational and higher education. Materials and methods. To assess students' natural-science literacy, test tasks were developed in accordance with the criteria and parameters used in the PISA study. The study involved students of Bunin Yelets State University, students in the first years of secondary vocational education, bachelor's and specialist's programs. The sample size includes 683 students, which is 83% of the entire general population (determined by the number of first-year students). The study was conducted in September 2022. The design of the study involves the provision and analysis of results on the following parameters (general level of natural-science literacy, natural-science competencies, areas of natural-science knowledge, contexts, motivation for natural-science education) in the context of the entire sample, as well as sample groups classified by level education and training profile. If there is data on any parameter of the all-Russian sample, the results are compared. The processing of the quantitative results of the study was carried out using the Kruskal-Wallis test using the SPSS v.26 software tool. Results. A study of the natural-science literacy of students showed that students have an average level (84.6%), the average score for the sample (541 points) exceeds the national similar indicator (476 points). There were no significant differences between the groups of students in higher and secondary vocational education programs in the study. Statistically significant differences are present in the study of the natural-science literacy of students of various educational profiles. In the sample of students of social-humanitarian profiles, the largest percentage of respondents with a threshold level of science literacy (11.6%), while students of mathematics-technology and natural-science profiles did not demonstrate such results. The largest percentage of students with a high level of natural-science literacy is observed among students of natural-science training profiles (34.5%) and mathematicaltechnological profiles (10.5%). The average score for a sample of students of social-humanitarian profiles is 528 points, mathematics-technology – 561 points, natural-sciences – 595 points. At the same time, within the entire sample, there is an approximately equal percentage of students with threshold (20.2%), low (26.9%), medium (29.7%), and high (23.1%) levels of motivation natural-scientific education. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the natural-science literacy of students was studied on the material of a large sample, taking into account the levels of education (secondary vocational education, higher education) and training profiles (social-humanitarian, natural-science, mathematical-technological). Practical significance. The study of the natural-science literacy of students will significantly increase the significance of national sections of the quality of education, since it gives a complete picture of the features of natural-science education. Keywords: functional literacy, natural-science literacy, secondary vocational education, higher education, PISA