Scientific literacy : basic concepts, skills and attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was the identification and specification of three components of an operational definition of scientific literacy: scientific attitudes, process skills, and concepts. A stratified--secondary educators, secondary students, university educators, concerned citizens-random sample from the State of Texas generated and rated 13 process skills , 21 attitudes, 58 life science concepts, 43 earth science concepts, 56 physical science concepts, and 20 ecology-other concepts in two surveys. The scientific attitudes, process skills, and attitudes were rated significantly different yet ranked similarly by the four groups in the population. The ratings of the 211 survey items by the total population formed a relatively normal distribution; therefore, items greater than one standard deviation, within one standard deviation above, and within one standard deviation below the distribution mean, were respectively considered most essential, essential, and desirable for inclusion in an operational definition of scientific literacy. While not excluded from the goals of science education, the items with ratings less than one standard deviation below the distribution mean were not considered for inclusion in an operational definition of scientific literacy at the minimum competency level. A post hoc analysis of group data--Scheffe's tests to determine contrasts in the rating of items and Spearman-rho coefficients to determine correlations in the ranking of items--identified some tendencies. However, there was no collaborating evidence to indicate that one group or combination of groups was the primary cause of significant differences in ratings or variations in rank-difference correlation coefficients..