Korean Secondary Students’ Perception of Scientific Literacy as Global Citizens: Using Global Scientific Literacy Questionnaire

Abstract

We re-conceptualized the meaning of scientific literacy and developed an instrument, which we call the Global Scientific Literacy Questionnaire (GSLQ) based on a new conceptual framework for scientific literacy in the twenty-first century. We identified five dimensions, each with key elements. The five dimensions are (1) content knowledge (core ideas of science), (2) habits of mind (science practices), (3) character and values, (4) science as human endeavor, and (5) metacognition and self-direction. In this study, we attempted to diagnose the extent to which South Korean secondary students perceive themselves as global citizens having such capabilities using GSLQ with 3,202 students (7th-12th grades). Validity and reliability were examined using various statistical techniques including the Cronbach's α coefficient, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The use and value of the instrument were discussed by examining the Korean secondary students' overall scientific literacy as well as their views on each dimension across gender and grade levels. We recommend that teachers and researchers use the GSLQ to assess students' global scientific literacy and provide comments on its usefulness as a research tool and the practical use of its inventory of items.

Intercultural Adaptation and Validity Study: Universal Science Literacy Scale (USLS)

“…In this study, it was aimed to adapt the "Universal Science Literacy Scale" developed by Mun, Shin, Lee, Kim, Choi, Choi and Krajcik [48] into Turkish. For this purpose, the linguistic equivalence study was conducted and the results of this linguistic equivalence study were examined and then the correlation coefficient calculated to test the correlation between the participants' responses to the items of the original English scale and to the items of the Turkish version revealed a highly positive and significant correlation.…”

“…USLS's socio-scientific responsibility factor seems to correspond to the sub-learning area of socio-scientific issues in the curriculum; characteristics of scientific knowledge seems to correspond to the sub-learning area of nature of science; science and society and ecological world view factor seems to correspond to the sub-learning areas of science and technology relationship and awareness of sustainable development. Thus, it seems that "The Universal Science Literacy Scale" developed by Mun et al [48] matches up with the vision of the current science curriculum and the learning areas in the curriculum; therefore, it can be argued that the scale covers the dimensions of science literacy in the renewed program. Introduction of such a scale covering the up-to-date dimensions of science literacy in the literature will be helpful to academicians, practitioners and teachers working in this field.…”

“…The scale has a total of 48 items. The items and dimensions making up the original English USLS were combined with the scale developed by Laugsch and Spargo [39] including the subjects of Science-Technology-Society Relationship and Nature of Science and the scale developed by Manhart [42] including the subjects of societal perspective, science through human effort and the place of basic natural sciences in daily life and enhanced with the 21 st century skills and competences [48]. Moreover, the concept of universality added to science literacy entails viewing every citizen in the society as a universal citizen.…”

“…Therefore, determination of the target population's literacy level, science literacy perception, opinions about science literacy and characteristics to be possessed by a science literature individual is of great importance in the definition and shaping of science literacy. In this connection, in the literature there are many studies focusing on different aspects of science literacy such as those attempting to develop scales to measure science literacy levels [24,27,39,48], proposing theoretical basis on which science literacy can be built [9,11,29], offering suggestions to enhance students' science literacy perceptions [40,41,50], measuring individuals' science literacy levels [4,39,47,48,53,72,73], exploring the effect of different variables on science literacy level [2,25,32,59,63], evaluating science curriculums and textbooks in terms of science literacy [7,10,23,75,76] and investigating historical and conceptual evolution of science literacy [9,16,30,38,45,69]. The scale developed in one of these studies by Laugksch and Spargo [39]) "The Basic Science Literacy Scale" has been observed to be one of the most widely used scales in the determination of individuals' science literacy [22,31,70,74].…”

“…Thus, the purpose of the current study is to adapt "The Universal Science Literacy Scale" developed by Mun et al, [48] into Turkish. To this end, the current study seeks answers to the following sub-problems:…”