Assessment of Scientific Literacy of Estonian Gymnasium Students during the Operation of a Competence-based Science Curriculum

Abstract

Sustainable societies need a workforce with a very creative and flexible nature to be able cope with rapidly changing situations making creative and reasonable decisions. The only suggested way to obtain this is through education that is oriented to competences. The goal of this research is to determine the influence of a new competence-based science curriculum on gymnasium students' scientific creativity skills and socio-scientific reasoning in the context of studying lactose intolerance. In order to investigate the development of these skills at the gymnasium level, a scientific literacy test is administered to 1116 10 th grade students (16-17 year old) and 802 12 th grade students (17-18 year old), totally 1918 students in. 44 randomly selected schools from different regions of Estonia, both urban and rural, to the scientific literacy test on a new Estonian competence-based curriculum is conducted in the fall of 2011 with the 10 th grade students and the test is repeated with the same students in the spring of 2013 before they graduated 12 th grade. The data are gathered with an 8-item test assessing students' scientific literacy components including scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning. The test situation is initiated by a scenario describing an expected visit of a family (mother and triplets) and their food provision problems, which arise because the mother and one of the boys suffered from lactose intolerance. One of the tasks is designed to measure scientific creativity skills and one task to assess socio-scientific reasoning skills. Responses are scored from 0-3 points per task. The results of the study show that the new competence-based science curriculum has not yet affected significantly the students' learning outcomes in enhancing competences associated with scientific creativity and socio-scientific reasoning skills. Studies during gymnasium level have not supported the students' ability to transfer biological and chemical knowledge into everyday situation effectively.

Using concept mapping to measure changes in interdisciplinary learning during high school

“…This study is based on a subset of the data from the large-scale natural science scenariobased longitudinal study Lotegym (Soobard, Rannikmäe, & Reiska, 2015;Laius, Post, & Rannikmäe, 2016) which was carried out in 2011-2014 (illustrated in Table 1). There were N1=1614 students (ages 16-19) from different Estonian high schools.…”

“…Students had to solve a scientific problem, make a decision, and choose a correct scientific explanation during the exercise. Results of the exercises were coded on a three points scale (Soobard et al, 2015;Laius et al, 2016). The exercises were based on different fields and scenario-based topics in natural science and the themes were from biology, chemistry, physics and geography.…”

Students’ scientific knowledge and skills as a prerequisite for studying health care at the tertiary level – the Tartu Health College case

“…Kuna güm-naasiumi lõpetajate oskuste ning kõrgkoolide ootuste ja vajaduste vahele on tekkinud lõhe, on oluline teha kindlaks kõrgkooli sisseastunute loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse tase, et leida üles need kitsaskohad, milles üliõpi lased vajaksid kõrgkooliõpingutega paremaks toimetulekuks rohkem toetust. Eestis on küll tehtud gümnaasiumiõpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse uuringuid (Kask, Ploomipuu, & Rannikmäe, 2015;Laius, Post, & Rannikmäe, 2016;Rannikmäe, Reiska, & Soobard, 2014;Soobard & Rannikmäe, 2011, 2015, kuid kõrgkooli tasandil pole seda uuritud. Uuringutes on kasutatud küsimustikku, milles kirjeldati igapäevaelulisi stsenaariume ning küsiti nende põhjal interdistsiplinaarseid küsimusi, keskendudes kolmele oskusele: loodusteadusliku sisuga selgituste andmisele, loodusteadusliku sisuga probleemide lahendamisele ning põhjendatud otsuste tegemisele (Kask et al, 2015;Laius et al, 2016;Rannikmäe et al, 2014;Soobard & Rannikmäe, 2011, 2015.…”

“…Laius jt (2016) on jõudnud järeldusele, et bioloogia ainevaldkonnas on loovuse ning sotsiaalteadusliku põhjendamisega seotud oskused omandatud gümnaasiumis väga madalal tasemel. Neid oskusi mõõtvate küsimuste skoorid suurenevad küll statisti liselt olulisel määral gümnaasiumi lõpuks, kuid jäävad uuringu kohaselt u 50% tasemele võimalikust maksimumskoorist (Laius et al, 2016). Soobard ja Rannikmäe (2011) on leidnud samuti, et õpilaste oskus kasutada loodus teaduslikke teadmisi probleemide lahendamisel ja otsuste tegemisel on puudulik.…”

“…Eraldi arutlemist väärib küsimus 8, millele vastavad oskused (loovuse ja sotsiaal-teadusliku põhjendamisega seotud oskused) ei olnud gümnaa-siumi tulemuste põhjal piisavalt head (Laius et al, 2016), kuid praeguses uuringus on need (ka osaliselt õigeks loetud vastuste põhjal) suhteliselt head. Küsimusega paluti üliõpilastel kirjeldada restoranimenüü koostamist eel kirjeldatud laktoositalumatuse teema kontekstis ning põhjendada valikuid mitmest aspektist.…”