Attitudes toward Science and Scientific Literacy Among Romanian Young Adults

Abstract

The paper explores attitudes toward science and scientific literacy among Romanian young adults, through an online survey following key dimensions - attitudes toward science, integration of science in everyday life, beliefs in pseudoscientific phenomena and knowledge of the scientific method. Moreover, the study focuses especially on healthcare students and professionals’ scientific literacy, exploring the level of scientific reasoning within the medical field. Analysis includes multiple comparisons across different fields of study, professional areas and age groups. The novelty of the study consists in shifting the assessment of scientific literacy from general scientific knowledge toward the understanding of the scientific method. Results of the present study confirmed a deficit in scientific knowledge, but more importantly, demonstrated that the relationship between scientific literacy and attitudes toward science was a non-linear one. In fact, the study found a gap between what people accept to be scientific fact and what they choose to integrate into everyday life. Given these results, we argue that science education’s focus should be on developing scientific reasoning rather than providing scientific knowledge.