Civic Scientific Literacy Research Articles

Development and validation of an instrument for measuring civic scientific literacy

Civic scientific literacy (CSL) is a fundamental indicator of social development and national literacy and is very important for personal well-being and national competitiveness. To be in line with the technological advancements and demands of the current era, we focused on “science engagement”, which is now considered an important approach to enhance the CSL of the general public, and developed a 4-dimensional CSL assessment framework based on the crucial elements for citizens to engage in science. The 4 dimensions are scientific knowledge (SK), scientific method (SM), problem-solving (PS), and scientific thought and spirit of science (STSS). With this framework, a CSL measurement instrument including 50 items was developed. Various validity evidence, including evidence with reliability close to or exceeding 0.8 for all four dimensions, supports the use of the instrument to provide a valuation of CSL. Age, location type (urban or rural), educational background, and occupation are all significant factors associated with CSL.

Coastal Communications: Teaching Civic Scientific Literacy in English and Environmental Science and Resource Management Classes

Coastal Communications: Teaching Civic Scientific Literacy in English and Environmental Science and Resource Management Classes

The Construction of Civil Scientific Literacy in China from the Perspective of Science Education.

On 25 June 2021, the State Council issued the new Outline of the National Action Scheme for Scientific Literacy for All Chinese Citizens (2020–2035) (Outline of Scientific Literacy). In order to provide reference for its implementation, this study analyzes the achievements and obstacles in the implementation of the old Outline of Scientific Literacy (2006–2010-2020) based on the results of all previous surveys on civic scientific literacy (CSL) in China and from the perspective of science education. The results showed a continued steady growth in CSL, from 1.6 in 2005 to 10.56% in 2020. Specifically, male, urban, and younger adults were more likely to qualify as possessing CSL. Moreover, education level was found to be positively related to CSL. The study also found that in China, the effectiveness of formal science education has been hampered by the long-term division of the arts and sciences, examination-oriented education, the urban–rural gap, and the aging population. In terms of informal education, 37.2% of Chinese citizens visited science museums in 2020, and the Internet plays an increasing important role. Nowadays, Chinese science popularization lacks interaction, with limited opportunities for public engagement. There are deficiencies in both the country’s formal and informal science education, meaning that there is still much room for improvement in the promotion of CSL in China.

How Getting Friendly with Bacteria Can Promote Student Appreciation of Microbial Diversity and Their Civic Scientific Literacy

ABSTRACTePortfolios are digital repositories where students can curate papers, projects, and reflections from individual or multiple courses across the disciplines and in a variety of formats to showcase their learning. This transparent and portable medium, which enables students to document their knowledge and abilities for assessment and career development, has been recognized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities as one of 11 high-impact practices. Using tailored rubrics, student assessment of learning gain surveys, and end-of-course exam questions, this study demonstrates how an ePortfolio assignment can be used in microbiology courses taken by majors and nonmajors to measure student learning outcomes in several course and program learning goals. Additionally, it helps students reflect on their learning and place it in a real-world context by connecting science, microbiology, and microbes with issues of social importance like cholera, gender equity, and antibiotic resistance. Writing from a first-person perspective and drawing on resources obtained in class and from their own research, students generate profiles for a chosen microbe and document the microbe’s characteristics in creative ways. The ePortfolio assignment can also be partnered with creative work such as an art piece or a poem that highlights and showcases the microbe in a format that is accessible to the public to increase awareness of the role of microbes in our ecosystems. With careful design and construction of assignments, ePortfolios can also be leveraged to promote civic and scientific literacy by tying classroom content to real-world issues of civic importance.

Public acceptance of evolution in the United States, 1985-2020.

The public acceptance of evolution in the United States is a long-standing problem. Using data from a series of national surveys collected over the last 35 years, we find that the level of public acceptance of evolution has increased in the last decade after at least two decades in which the public was nearly evenly divided on the issue. A structural equation model indicates that increasing enrollment in baccalaureate-level programs, exposure to college-level science courses, a declining level of religious fundamentalism, and a rising level of civic scientific literacy are responsible for the increased level of public acceptance.

Development of Pisa 2015 Based Chemical Literacy Assessment Instrument For High School Students

Development of Pisa 2015 Based Chemical Literacy Assessment Instrument For High School Students

Integrating scientific literacy skills into a biochemistry course for nonscience majors.

One of the goals for requiring all college students to take science courses is to develop critical thinking about scientific issues they will encounter as citizens, consumers, and patients. This article integrates skill development activities targeting civic scientific literacy skills in a nonscience majors (liberal arts) biochemistry course, but similar principles could be integrated into nursing and major levels biochemistry courses. Strategies include teaching information acquisition, source analysis argument analysis, and civic engagement. These can be integrated into classroom activities, homework assignments, and outside of class projects. The impact of these activities was assessed through performance on the activities, open ended exam questions, and an end of course survey. Students gained both biochemical content and skills in evaluating claims with evidence, and reported the course helped them better understand what scientists do and how to make decisions based upon scientific evidence without detracting from the typical content learning goals of the course.

A Brief Review of the Four-decade Evolution of Science Popularization in China

This article presents a brief review of the history, main achievements and challenges faced during the 40-year evolution of science popularization (SP) in China that began with the reform and opening up process. Four distinct phases are noted in the development of SP: institutional reconstruction, structural maturity, fast development of a legal system and comprehensive strategic upgrading. China has achieved much during these phases in the areas of SP mechanisms, funding, personnel, infrastructure, resources and civic scientific literacy. At the same time, it is also facing challenges in strategic positioning, the effectiveness of SP policies, internationalization, the construction of the SP system and scientific culture. Evidently, the government's prioritization of SP is critical for advancing this initiative. In the future, under the government's leadership, the following directions should be pursued: expanding and improving civic scientific literacy through a focus on internationalization; promoting scientific cooperation from a global perspective; establishing a long-term SP mechanism; and building a service platform to promote ‘smart SP’. SP in China is clearly on the right track and will continue to advance in the future.

Análise de interações Ciência-Tecnologia-Sociedade (CTS) e de níveis de alfabetização científica em uma atividade extensionista

Neste trabalho os objetivos são analisar interações Ciência-Tecnologia-Sociedade (CTS) e identificar níveis de alfabetização científica em uma intervenção extensionista desenvolvida no âmbito do projeto de extensão Letramento Científico e Tecnológico em Escolas Públicas: discutindo interações CTS através de episódios do seriado Os Simpsons, desenvolvido em 2017 e apoiado pela Pró-Reitoria de Atividades de Extensão (PRAE) da Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco. A atividade extensionista em tela abordou a temática Radioatividade por meio do episódio “Holmer, o fazendeiro”, contou com a participação de 13 alunos da 3ª série do ensino médio, e foi realizada no auditório de uma das escolas com duração de duas aulas de 50 minutos cada. Os dados considerados para as análises foram as discussões dos alunos durante o debate, registradas em caderno de notas pelo bolsista de extensão e as respostas dos alunos ao questionário impresso. Os resultados das análises indicam que a intervenção extensionista possibilitou discussões sobre diferentes interações CTS e oportunizou aos alunos elementos para a alfabetização científica prática e cultural. Contudo, outras estratégicas metodológicas precisam ser redesenhadas com vistas à alfabetização científica cívica.

Integrating civic scientific literacy skills in a Biochemistry course

Individuals and organizations have to make regular decisions about biochemical data in their everyday lives. At many higher education institutions, all students are required to take science courses with the goal of developing scientific literacy. Scientific literacy has several distinct meanings, but this project emphasizes civic scientific literacy, the understanding of contemporary science‐related issues necessary for informed community engagement. The hypothesis is that consumer and citizenship skills for evaluating data sources can be integrated into Biochemistry courses, specifically a one semester survey course of biochemistry for non‐science (liberal arts) majors. Parallel strategies were integrated to teach students to access biochemical and health related scientific information, analyze arguments, and decide on personal or community action. Students were taught how research studies are conducted and the limits of each model through a website called Study Design 101 (https://himmelfarb.gwu.edu/tutorials/studydesign101/) and to evaluate arguments with the Claim‐Evidence‐Reasoning model. These approaches were integrated into classroom activities and homework assignments. Personal and community action opportunities were provided through outside of class activities that students chose for themselves. The impact of these activities was assessed through performance on the activities, open ended exam questions, and an end of course survey. Students gained both biochemical content and skills in evaluating claims with evidence, and reported the course helped them better understand what scientists do and how to make decisions based upon scientific evidence.Support or Funding InformationThanks to the Haines Fund for the Study of Biochemistry at Wabash College.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

A Systematic Initial Study of Civic Scientific Literacy in China: Cross-National Comparable Results from Scientific Cognition to Sustainable Literacy

Civic scientific literacy (CSL) is an important factor for the development of any country, and this is especially true for a country which is under development and at the same time pursues sustainability. In this article, we conduct the firstly systematic study of CSL in China based on survey data in 2013. Under the multi-dimension CSL framework and by using item response theory, we assess the CSL level in China, which can be fairly compared with that in U.S. and Europe (US-EU). The comparable survey results provided a number of implicational findings: for example, the status of CSL of China in 2013 would have ranked as middling and poor compared to the CSL results for the various US-EU countries in 1995 and 2005, respectively. Some group-based analyses were also conducted to show how people’s attitudes to the environment and socio-environmental behaviours correlate with the CSL-qualified rate in China. The empirical results provided by this study not only can serve as references for improving CSL in China or other emerging countries that also address the sustainability issues during development, but could also serve as indicators for future studies (e.g., in causational modelling).

Teaching climate change in middle schools and high schools: investigating STEM education’s deficit model

Science teachers play an important role promoting civic scientific literacy, but recent research suggests they are less effective than they could be in educating the next generation of citizens about climate change and its causes. One particular area of concern is that many science teachers in the USA encourage students to debate settled empirical findings, such as the role of human-generated emissions of greenhouse gases in raising global temperatures. A common reaction is to call for science teachers to receive more formal training in climate science to increase their knowledge, which will then improve teaching. Using a nationally representative survey of 1500 middle school and high school science teachers, we investigate each element in this argument, and show that increased science coursework in college has modest effects on teachers’ content knowledge and on their teaching choices, including decisions about debating “both sides.” We also find that teachers’ personal political orientations play a large role in their teaching strategies: right-leaning teachers devote somewhat less time to global warming and are much more likely to encourage student debate on the causes of global warming. We discuss the implications of these findings and argue teacher education might be more effective if informed by insights from the emerging discipline of science communication. However, although knowledge and ideology are predictive of pedagogy, a large number of teachers of all ideological positions and all levels of subject expertise encourage students to debate established findings. We discuss this and highlight potential explanations.

Talking with the Scientists: Promoting Scientific Citizenship at School through Participatory and Deliberative Approach

Unceasing and pervasive, techno-scientific innovation has changed the social demand for science education over the last few decades. Science education is no longer asked only to train specialists for the technical and scientific professions or for research, but strives to spread science for the citizen. The challenge is to make most people capable of seeing and understanding the impact of science and technology in everyday life, of thinking critically about them and making informed decisions. In recent decades, moreover, the frequent controversies (e.g. on genetic engineering) – as well as the string of alarming events (such as the climate change) where science and politics failed to provide decisive solutions – have stimulated lively interest in public participation in fields traditionally dominated by specialists expertise. This paper, after a brief introduction to the concept of civic scientific literacy and its recent developments, will focus on practices of deliberative democracy that allow citizens to participate directly in decision-making about socio-scientific issues. Starting from an analysis of an initiative conducted in Italian high schools, the paper discusses the contribution that introducing participatory and deliberative practices in a school setting can play in promoting scientific citizenship.

An assessment of civic scientific literacy in Japan: development of a more authentic assessment task and scoring rubric

ABSTRACTScientific literacy has been measured by a variety of assessment tools in the past few decades. International surveys such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) emphasize the importance of scientific literacy. Scientific literacy is now regarded as a significant learning goal in science education. TIMSS assesses the mastery of scientific knowledge and method, while PISA focuses on the use of scientific knowledge and methods in measuring scientific literacy. On the other hand, adults’ scientific literacy has been measured mainly from the perspective of mastery of scientific knowledge and skills, although a great deal of the research in this area highlights the importance of use of scientific knowledge and skills, and decision-making in an authentic context. It is considered necessary to propose a new tool that can assess unmeasured aspects of the scientific literacy of adults as described above, particularly focusing on civic scientific literacy required for citizens in democratic society. In this paper, the author describes the development of the Assessment of Civic Scientific Literacy (ACSEL). A total of 401 Japanese general citizens aged over 20 years old participated in this study via an Internet Research System. First of all, the reliability and validity of ACSEL are examined in order to confirm whether it can be practically used or not. Secondly, the author reports the responses for each item. Finally, the individual contributions of gender, age, and educational background on civic scientific literacy scores are investigated to identify determinants.

Benchmark of civic scientific literacy: the inspiration of international achievements and the exploration in China

Benchmark of civic scientific literacy: the inspiration of international achievements and the exploration in China

What are we aiming for?—A Delphi study on the development of civic scientific literacy in Sweden

ABSTRACTBased on the EU FP 7 project, PROFILES, this article presents our findings from a three-round Delphi study conducted in Sweden that aimed at establishing a consensus on how science education should be developed for citizens to enhance civic scientific literacy. A total of 100 stakeholders (9th graders, school teachers, scientists, and science education researchers) were involved in our Delphi study in 2012–2013. The results revealed that there were some highly ranked consensus ideas: environmental issues, inquiry skills, motivation/interest, and holistic comprehension. The conclusions of our research imply the importance of involving different stakeholders in the educational reconstruction process; we suggest that schoolteachers in particular should play a vital role.

The effects of scientific literacy on participation to political decision making

The low levels of scientific literacy among the general public in a society where technology penetrates all aspects of everyday life creates major citizenship problems. One of the main goals of education is increasing the civic scientific literacy of the citizens besides preparing students for science based vocations. Well educated human capital stock is important for informed decision making as well as the development of research and development activities. The quality of policy decisions is highly dependent on the level of interest, information and attitudes towards S&T. Making conscious decisions about S&T related developments is substantial for democratic participation of the public to policy making. Increasing complexity of science and technology related issues creates a gap between expert and citizen knowledge. Scientific literacy decreases this gap in terms of creating a knowledgeable approach to the controversies around scientific issues. The aim of this study is to make an operational model for explaining how civic scientific literacy affects public understanding of science and these in turn influence participation to political decision making. We analyse the effects of scientific literacy and other public understanding of science variables on participation to political decision making.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Two Communication Formats on Visitors’ Understanding of Nanotechnology

ABSTRACTThe authors investigated the results of the Europe-wide initiative NanoToTouch, which aims to create innovative environments in science museums to encourage public understanding of nanotechnology and nanotechnological research. The concepts of civic scientific literacy and expert–layperson communication formed the theoretical framework of the study. Two kinds of communication formats, which varied in the degree to which presentations were individualized for visitors, were established and investigated in five museums and science centers in four countries. The findings from 522 visitors indicate (a) a positive response from visitors regarding both formats with some differences between them; (b) an increase in visitors’ self-perceived level of knowledge, which was considerably higher for nanotechnological content than for nanotechnological research; and (c) a predominance of situational aspects, compared to personal variables, influencing visitors’ learning. Results are discussed in terms of an effective implementation of these communication formats in museums.

Correlation between MCAT Biology Content Specifications and Topic Scope and Sequence of General Education College Biology Textbooks

Most American colleges and universities offer gateway biology courses to meet the needs of three undergraduate audiences: biology and related science majors, many of whom will become biomedical researchers; premedical students meeting medical school requirements and preparing for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT); and students completing general education (GE) graduation requirements. Biology textbooks for these three audiences present a topic scope and sequence that correlates with the topic scope and importance ratings of the biology content specifications for the MCAT regardless of the intended audience. Texts for "nonmajors," GE courses appear derived directly from their publisher's majors text. Topic scope and sequence of GE texts reflect those of "their" majors text and, indirectly, the MCAT. MCAT term density of GE texts equals or exceeds that of their corresponding majors text. Most American universities require a GE curriculum to promote a core level of academic understanding among their graduates. This includes civic scientific literacy, recognized as an essential competence for the development of public policies in an increasingly scientific and technological world. Deriving GE biology and related science texts from majors texts designed to meet very different learning objectives may defeat the scientific literacy goals of most schools' GE curricula.

Students’ Knowledge of Nuclear Science and Its Connection with Civic Scientific Literacy in Two European Contexts: The Case of Newspaper Articles

Nuclear science has uses and applications that are relevant and crucial for world peace and sustainable development, so knowledge of its basic concepts and topics should constitute an integral part of civic scientific literacy. We have used two newspaper articles that deal with uses of nuclear science that are directly relevant to life, society, economy, and international politics. One article discusses a new thermonuclear reactor, and the second one is about depleted uranium and its danger for health. 189 first-year undergraduate physics and primary education Greek students were given one of the two articles each, and asked to answer a number of accompanying questions dealing with knowledge that is part of the Greek high school curriculum. The study was repeated with 272 first-year undergraduate physics, physics education, science education, and primary education Turkish students. Acceptable or partially acceptable answers were provided on average by around 20 % of Greek and 11 % of Turkish students, while a large proportion (on the average, around 50 % of Greek and 27 % of Turkish students) abstained from answering the questions. These findings are disappointing, but should be seen in the light of the limited or no coverage of the relevant learning material in the Greek and the Turkish high-school programs. Student conceptual difficulties, misconceptions and implications for research and high school curricula are discussed.