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In the 21st century, individuals are expected to be scientifically literate and develop themselves in this direction. However, wrong judgments about self-competence, such as overconfidence, can cause mistakes in the process of solving problems related to science and technology and prevent making the right decisions. This situation, known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, is defined as a person's overconfidence in their abilities, knowledge, and skills. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between individuals' perceptions and observed levels of scientific literacy. Survey method was employed to conduct the study. The science literacy scale (SLS) developed by researchers was administered to 5426 adults aged between 18 and 65. The participants were asked to make predictions about the scores they could get from SLS before and after it was administrated. A significant and positive relationship between the pre- and post-scores that the participants predicted to receive from the scale and the scores they got from the scale was found. The difference between the individuals' observed science literacy levels and their predicted scores generally decreases by educational degree. The individuals' awareness of their real situation increased after seeing the questions in SLS.

The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of Problem Based Learning (PBL) with the support of Prezi media on scientific literacy and independence. The research design used was quasi-experimental in nature. The sample of this study consisted of 59 fourth grade students. Data were collected using a test and a questionnaire. The instruments used were a 20-item test to assess scientific literacy and a 30-item questionnaire to measure independence. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and statistical inference. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used in testing the hypotheses. The findings show that the PBL model supported by Prezi media has a simultaneous and partial effect on students' scientific literacy and independence. The findings also show that the Prezi media-enabled PBL model has a greater impact on scientific literacy than on students' independence.

This study is empirical research about alternative ideas on the concept of force for five different age groups, primary school students (11), middle school students (15), high school students (17), students of the Department of Primary Education (21), and active teachers in primary education (27-50). We used the same questionnaire for all groups, which shows a relationship with the answers depending on their age. The analysis of the percentage of the correct answers concerning the age of subjects gives a sigmoid curve, which is the learning curve on the concept of force. For all the questions, there was a statistically significant correlation with age. That provides us with interesting information about the teaching of the force. In particular, our results suggest that the alternative conceptions of students and teachers, reflecting misconceptions and preconceptions, reduce with age or equivalently with the education level. Our study can be used in science teaching classrooms, on the design of curricula, and teachers' professional development.

Global warming is the most serious problem of our age. The most permanent measure to be taken against this problem is to ensure that individuals receive an effective and well-equipped education, free from misconceptions, which are obstacles to the efficiency of education. In this study, it is aimed to develop a four-stage diagnostic test that can reveal the misconceptions of pre-service science teachers about global warming. The sample of the study, in which the survey approach was used, consists of 401 pre-service teachers studying in the science teaching department at different universities in Turkey. The results show that the test is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to determine the misconceptions, scientific knowledge, and lack of knowledge about global warming. In the study, the factor with the highest percentage of pre-service science teachers' scientific knowledge and misconceptions was the consequences of global warming, while the factor with the highest percentage of lack of knowledge was calculated as the greenhouse effect factor. It is recommended to use the test to determine the current situation regarding the level and areas where the misconceptions of individuals are concentrated to improve the missing or faulty areas in the science curriculum.

The shift to student engagement in scientific and engineering practices to learn science provides opportunities for science learning and language learning to occur in tandem. These opportunities also pose new challenges for elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) since literacy methods courses have been presented separately from science methods courses. We integrated a disciplinary literacy framework in a science methods course to help elementary PSTs understand the synergistic connections between literacy and science teaching. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary PSTs' understanding of the use of science-specific literacy strategies to support science teaching and learning through three points of observation. Findings from three data sources indicated that PSTs showed a developing understanding of the role of disciplinary literacy in supporting student engagement in science practices and learning disciplinary core ideas. Implications for future uses of a disciplinary literacy framework for teaching and learning science and elementary PSTs' science preparation are presented.

This research aimed to describe the development of scientific literacy of students in Indonesia at the Adiwiyata school. The design of this research was qualitative. The data were gathered through observation, an interview and documentation. The subjects were selected through snowball sampling. Data analysis was carried out by referring to the analytical model proposed by Miles and Huberman with the steps of reducing data, displaying data, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study indicate that the development of scientific literacy in Adiwiyata schools, as described, is carried out by involving various aspects, both the use of facilities and infrastructure as learning media, the academic culture of the Adiwiyata schools being socialized, the use of open-ended questions by teachers in answering questions to stimulate students to find answers with steps scientific knowledge, as well as the determination of rewards and punishments that are carried out consistently for children who are disciplined in following and implementing the school's academic culture and vice versa. The methods used have the same goal, namely, to train students to develop basic science skills starting from investigation, hypothesis testing, to obtaining conclusions based on the data found, so that students' scientific literacy appears.

This research was undertaken to improve the science process skills (SPS) and science literacy (SL) of primary school pre-service teachers with different family backgrounds in terms of parental education. It was planned with a quasi-experimental design with pretests and posttests in the framework of quantitative research methodology. Eighty-four first-year students from the primary school education departments of two different public universities participated in this 14-week-long study conducted in the spring semester of 2021-2022. Classes were taught with a focus on SPS for the experimental groups and within the scope of a textbook developed for basic science education in primary school for the control groups. Data were collected by administering the SPS Test and SL Test. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and MANOVA were used. The results showed that SPSfocused education processes significantly increased the SPS and SL of the pre-service teachers. Furthermore, prior to the implementation, participants in both experimental and control groups whose parents were had bachelor degree or high school diploma ranked higher in terms of SPS and SL. While the gap in SPS arising from parental education level was closed in the experimental groups as a result of the implementation, the advantage of having a bachelor degree parent continued for SL. These results are discussed in the context of primary school pre-service teachers regarding parental education levels, SPS, and SL.

As many studies focus on improving scientific literacy skills in students, there are still many gaps, thus an appropriate learning innovations are needed to get maximum results. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of project-based blended learning in enhancing students' scientific literacy skills at the university. The experimental study involved 40 students of class A from the Department of Biology Education as the experimental group and 40 students of class B in the same department as the control group. The research instrument used the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data. The results showed a significant increase in all aspects of scientific literacy skills after the implementation of project-based blended learning at the university such as an explaining phenomena scientifically, designing and evaluating scientific inquiry, and interpreting data and evidence scientifically. This research is beneficial for university lecturers for a solution to the problem of scientific literacy skills in students especially in university. Furthermore, there needs to be similar research at the elementary, junior high, and senior high school levels.

One of the main objectives of science education is to produce students and, in general, a society that is scientifically literate. To achieve this objective, teachers across the different educational stages must work on science at school, so it is essential that students in education degrees reach scientific competence, but for this, it would be necessary to know the questions raised by schoolchildren about natural sciences, to be able to work from their interests and confront the pre-service teachers with these questions, as well as to know the interests of the university students themselves. In this research, a case study has compiled spontaneous questions about natural sciences that pre-school students ask their parents, and they have been compared with those made by pre-service teachers. The results show that the questions are similar in terms of subject matter and complexity and that only some are investigable questions. In addition, university students are not able to answer children's questions with their own knowledge, which implies the need to work more on science in the study plans of Education degrees and help them devise strategies to work them. It is also necessary to stress that it is important not only to know the answer, but also to have the capacity to organise activities that encourage students to search for answers on their own.

With the effective use of technological tools and equipment in all areas of life, the effective use of technological applications that will support the solution of daily life problems has become inevitable in order for science literacy to occur. The main purpose of this research is to determine the effect of infographic applications on the development of students' technological competencies and science literacy in the hybrid education process in high school physics courses. The study was carried out with 173 students in Turkey in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic years, for three weeks at school where the researcher taught. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used together within the scope of action research. Quantitative findings were evaluated with t-test and qualitative findings were evaluated with content analysis. In the hybrid education process, as a result of the infographic applications in the physics lesson, the technological competencies for educational purposes have developed in the students. As a result of students' effective use of infographic content in online and face-to-face educational applications, they have achieved advanced development in the dimensions of researching and questioning information, revealing the relationship between technological changes and science, and cognitive assimilation of information.

This study aims to summarize the research findings on using socio-scientific issues (SSI) in teaching Science. In recent years, teaching based on socio-scientific issues (SSI) is utilized in science education to promote scientific literacy. A meta-analysis is conducted by calculating the effect size of the 12 studies associated with the SSI implementation in teaching Science published in different regions. The overall effect size was large (1.08), and found that SSI affects teaching science. The effect sizes determined by the categorical variables such as scientific literacy aspects showed that SSI had a large effect on content learning (1.15), competence (0.89), decision-making (1.14), and reasoning (0.81); and year level showed that SSI had a large effect on junior high school (1.43) and senior high school (0.96) while medium effect on college (0.55). Lastly, a significant effect was shown on the moderating effect, such as the class size (p = 0.035), while no significant effect was shown on the duration of implementation (p = 0.487). Considering the effect of SSI in teaching Science, this study could help teachers and educational researchers in science and technology education.

The current study sought to determine the association between primary school teacher candidates' levels of scientific literacy and their attitudes about reading scientific texts. The study used a correlational survey technique. The sample population consisted of 287 primary school teacher candidates who were enrolled in a public university in South-Eastern Anatolia's education faculty for the 2020-2021 academic year. The "Personal Information Form," "Universal Science Literacy Scale," and "Attitude Scale towards Reading Scientific Texts" were used to gather the data. During the data analysis stage, frequency and percentage values for the variables were determined. Correlation, simple regression, and multiple regression analyses were then performed. The results revealed that although teacher candidates' reading and scientific text reading rates were insufficient, their attitudes toward scientific literacy and scientific text reading were "good." The attitude toward reading scientific materials and the sub-dimensions of scientific literacy were found to be positively and statistically correlated. Along with the "habits of mind" and "meta-cognition and self-direction" sub-dimensions, it was also noted that scientific literacy is a statistically significant predictor of attitude toward reading scientific materials. Based on their findings, the researcher came up with several recommendations.

Through local scientific learning, this action research attempts to improve primary school students' understanding of the nature of science. The target group consisted of nine grade 6 students from a school in Thailand's northeast. The observational tools were the understanding of nature of science test, understanding of nature of science questionnaire test, and interviewing. The research tools were action plans based on local science and observational tools were 1the understanding of nature of science test, understanding of nature of science questionnaire test, and interviewing. Mean, standard deviation, and percentage were used as descriptive statistics. According to the data, students improved their knowledge of science by 62.96 percent after the first learning cycle. Students achieved 92.59 percent of their grasp of science during the second learning cycle. Qualitative data could be used to help future research discussions.

The aim of the study was to determine the correlations between preservice science teachers' beliefs about the nature of science and their scientific inquiry and communication skills. The study group of the research was composed of 329 pre-service science teachers who are studying at Aydin Adnan Menderes and Mugla Universities of Turkey during the academic year of 2018-2019. The data were obtained by using "Beliefs about the Nature of Science Scale" and "Skills Learning Science Scale". In addition to descriptive statistics, independent samples t test, one-way analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression analyses were used in the analysis of the data. The result of the study indicated that pre-service science teachers had nearly "Acceptable" beliefs about the nature of science. Their scientific inquiry and communication skills were found to be nearly "High". In this study, it was concluded that imagination and creativity, assumptions and boundaries of science and observation and inference, explained approximately 12% of the variance in scientific inquiry skills. In addition, it was concluded that assumptions and boundaries of science, imagination and creativity and observation and inference, explained approximately 13 % of the variance in communication skills. In light of the findings, suggestions were presented at the end of the study.

Scientific/chemical literacy is currently the goal of science education in many countries. Students' chemical literacy can be developed through an innovative learning strategy that explicitly direct student learning to aspects of chemical literacy. This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of SOIE (Strengthening, Orientation, Investigation, and Evaluation) innovative learning strategies on students' chemical literacy. The study used a quasi-experiment with pretest-posttest control group design. The research subjects consisted of two classes (N=68) first year students in a public university: the experimental (n = 34) and the control (n = 34) groups. The experimental group was taught using the SSI context based SOIE strategy, while the control group was taught using conventional methods. Students' chemical literacy was measured using a chemical literacy test (r = 0.761) and the data were analysed using ANCOVA. The results showed that the innovative strategy significantly improves students' chemical literacy, and it greatly affected all aspects of chemical literacy measured (e.g. content, epistemic, and procedural knowledge). The average score of each aspect in the experimental group was higher than that of students in the control group. The research implication lies in incorporating explicit literacy aspects and socio-scientific issues in chemistry learning.

Scientific culture has been a concern for decades in the developed world, giving rise to conceptual changes known as paradigms. The first one is the longstanding literacy paradigm, defined by the skills and knowledge acquired at the education institution. It has been followed by the public understanding of science paradigm, related to the scientific understanding and an allegedly subsequent positive attitude towards science. Lastly, the engagement with science paradigm or science and society paradigm involves people's implications about the science-technology controversies with significant social impact. This article reflects how science teaching has evolved along the years in line with the scientific culture's conceptual shifts. It is concluded that this triad of paradigms is thus of a school nature, given that educational fields have suffered from transformation processes under the same vision of the world (world view), which has also changed the concept of scientific culture. Individuals in a research community learn ways of thinking, feeling and acting and therefore cannot help feeling a liking for what is short-lived and has not taken roots, both inside and outside the school in our postmodern age.

Science teachers are the primary agents in developing students' scientific literacy. Therefore, it is essential to identify teachers' perceptions of scientific literacy in order to increase students' scientific literacy. This study was designed to develop and validate an instrument of Indonesian science teachers' perceptions of scientific literacy. The questionnaire was developed based on previous research findings and focus group discussions involving six experts. The factors and internal consistency were examined by involving 808 students from various universities in Indonesia. Validity and reliability were tested using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. This study results showed 41 questionnaire items with acceptable internal validity and consistency. The questionnaires are recommended as a measure of the development of perceptions of prospective science teachers.

Students perceive chemistry as a complex subject resulting in low academic performance. Education systems shall support students in bridging the gap between traditional learning and online set-up using technology-based materials. The Electronic Strategic Intervention Material (E-SIM) is a new learning method to help improve the learner's performance in the least mastered competencies. This study focuses on determining how the E-SIM for "Ganyan Ang Bonding" (in English: Bonding Goes Like This) topic will improve the Grade 11 students' knowledge about chemical bonding. The researchers used a one-group pretest-posttest control design. The population was pooled using simple random sampling and out of the randomly selected sections, twenty-two students were qualified after the voluntary response sampling. Pretest and posttest, which underwent validation, were given before and after the intervention respectively. The material was validated by experts prior to its utilization. The analysis showed a 0.01 normalized gain score, which is confirmed by the paired sample t-test with a result of -3.17 and p-value of 0.0023, hence presenting that there is a significant increase between the pretest and posttest scores. The student perception survey was used to further determine the efficiency of the material, which showed that the students perceived the E-SIM as an effective tool as review material.

The research aims to determine which alternative literacy types should be included in the Social Studies curriculum used in Turkey since 2018 The data sources of the research, in which the document analysis method from the qualitative research methods was used, are the 2018 Turkish Social Studies Curriculum (for primary school and middle school 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grades), and the studies in the relevant literature. The curriculum was accessed from the official internet website of the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education Board of Education and Discipline; literature studies were accessed through databases like WoS, SCOPUS, EBSCO, ERIC, ScienceDirect, Sage, Wiley, Google Scholar, and DergiPark. The data were analyzed with the content analysis. The research results concluded that competencies are mostly related to cultural literacy, scientific literacy, technology literacy, civic (citizenship) literacy, and global literacy skills. Additionally, when the attainments were evaluated separately for each class level (4th-7th grades), it was seen that mainly geographical literacy, historical literacy, scientific literacy, cultural literacy, civic (citizenship) literacy, and global literacy could be included. Based on the results, it is recommended to assess technology literacy, natural disaster literacy, critical literacy, and visual literacy as alternative literacy types.

This exploratory case study aims to determine how preschool teachers' epistemological beliefs influence their pedagogical conceptualizations of science teaching. The research was conducted with a total of 10 teachers that were selected among 61 preschool teachers by their epistemological beliefs. The participants were divided into two sub-groups consisting of five persons each to represent the lower and higher epistemological profiles, based on their scores obtained from the Epistemological Belief Scale Towards Learning (EBSTL). A written form (Content Representation Task [CRT]) reflecting the content representations (CoRes) methodology was applied to determine these participants' pedagogical conceptualizations of early childhood science teaching and to reveal their PCK integration. The qualitative data collected in this way were analyzed through the "constant comparative method, inductive content analysis, in-depth explicit PCK analysis, enumerative approach, and PCK mapping." The analysis results showed that preschool teachers in the higher epistemological beliefs referred more to the science literacy vision and tended to use inquiry-based teaching approaches, and they addressed science teaching in a more holistic structure. Finally, both groups of teachers were insufficient to integrate assessment and curriculum components into early childhood science teaching. The results showed that epistemological beliefs directed the early childhood science teaching practices based on science literacy vision.

Inquiry-based science teaching is an innovative pedagogy that is more effective than traditional instruction in promoting scientific literacy. However, teachers must develop strong favourable beliefs about inquiry teaching before they can successfully employ it to improve students' learning outcomes. Despite its importance few studies have been done to examine teachers' beliefs about inquiry teaching in places, like Africa, where there are serious inquiry curricula implementation challenges. This study investigated whether teachers' beliefs are positive or negative indicators of inquiry-based science teaching. Convergent parallel mixed methods was used for the study. Purposive and stratified random sampling were used to select 308 and subsample of 18 integrated science teachers from public and private junior high schools (JHSs) from urban and rural areas. Administration of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used for the quantitative and qualitative data collection. The questionnaire has content and construct validities and is reliable. The interview schedule is credible and dependable. One finding suggests that most teachers in the research setting hold weak beliefs about inquiry teaching but strong beliefs about traditional instruction, that are negative indicators of inquiry-based science teaching. Other findings indicate that there are significant school type and academic qualification differences in teachers' beliefs about inquiry-based science teaching. One implication of the findings is that currently most teachers in the study context do not hold strong positive beliefs necessary for the implementation of inquiry-based science curricula. It is recommended that regular inquiry-based in-service trainings be designed to improve teachers' beliefs. It is also recommended that inquiry-based in-service trainings should be designed based on teachers' school type and academic qualifications.

"Dolphin Tale" is a movie about a dolphin that loses its tail after being entangled in a crab trap line and obtains a prosthetic tail. The movie was presented to support environmental education classes at the University of Brasilia. Over a period of five years, 210 Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students answered questionnaires after watching it. The results demonstrate that the movie helped to accomplish environmental education goals: the comprehension of the role of scientific knowledge in solving socio-environmental problems, the impact of human activities on biodiversity, the novelty of the integrative interplay of different disciplines, and the importance of values in awareness.

Service-learning and undergraduate research experiences are high-impact practices that have become more common in the sciences, but the benefits of short-term experiences have not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to compare within-semester gains for students in a short-term service-learning (SL) or short-term research project (RP) in terms of students' (i) motivation to learn biology, (ii) scientific literacy, (iii) perception of the relevance of biology to their lives, and (iv) learning gains associated with course learning outcomes. The impacts of brief service-learning and research project experiences were compared using direct and indirect assessments, including qualitative coding of open-ended response questions and quantitative analysis of exams and Likert-type items. We found few differences between students in the two projects regarding their changes in motivation (both slightly negative), scientific literacy (both gains), and their ability to connect biology to their lives (both gains). Emergent themes revealed that both projects influenced students' plans for future research and service-learning. Both projects helped students build relationships; however, RP students built relationships with classmates, while SL students built relationships with community members. The positive experiences highlight the need for engaging science students through service-learning in addition to research.

Primary Scientific Literature (PSL) has been used in undergraduate classrooms as a way to engage students with the research process and to increase science literacy. Most curricula lack any formal training for undergraduates to critically read PSL even though most undergraduate science courses require students to engage with PSL at some level. In addition, there are limited studies exploring the process by which expertise in reading PSL develops in undergraduates. In this study, we adapted behaviors that expert and novice PSL readers exhibit into a quantitative assessment tool, the PSL Reading Strategies Assessment, to evaluate undergraduates' development of reading strategies when learning to read PSL. Factor analysis and reliability measures were implemented to determine the structure of our assessment tool. Our results show the PSL Reading Strategies Assessment is sensitive enough to measure differences among student populations, suggesting that it can be used as a diagnostic tool to guide instructors and researchers as they change curricula, implement new teaching strategies, and strive to develop students' science literacy. Moreover, our data show that developing expert-like reading strategies in students learning to read PSL is not easy. Simply reading a PDF does little to promote the development of reading strategies in students learning to read PSL.

This study sought to assess the level of secondary students' scientific literacy in suburban schools in Malaysia and England, a research area which to date has not been fully explored in the literature. The study analyzed the data using the OECD's three domain-specific competencies of scientific literacy, namely: (i) explain phenomena scientifically, (ii) evaluate and design scientific enquiry, and (iii) interpret data and evidence scientifically. To assess the level of secondary students' scientific literacy in these contexts, the study applied the scientific literacy assessment instrument called the "Nature of Scientific Literacy Test" (NOSLiT), first developed by Wenning (2006). The results indicated that the level of scientific literacy of English students was higher than that of Malaysian students across all three domain-specific competencies. Despite the fact that NOSLiT is a systematic and reliable instrument for assessing the level of students' scientific literacy, the study found that OECD's three domain-specific competencies of scientific literacy provided better insights into the level of secondary students' scientific literacy in Malaysian and English suburban schools. It is suggested that future studies should use a qualitative approach to both data collection and analysis to understand the level of students' scientific literacy in more detail.

Scientific literacy is the ability to explain phenomena and solve problems using scientific knowledge. Despite being an important factor in the scientific and technological advancement of society, students worldwide struggle to attain the skills necessary to demonstrate competency in scientific literacy. This study examines the capacity for a cognitive style-based learning strategy (CSBLS) to improving students' environmental knowledge and scientific literacy. 55 students from two Indonesian state junior high schools (SMPN) participated in the research; 30 students from SMPN 6, Banjarmasin and 25 students from SMPN 21, Banjarmasin. The CSBLS was applied during six classroom meetings over a three week period using a group pre-test and post-test on the topic of environmental pollution. The study concluded that the CSBLS was able to improve students' environmental knowledge and scientific literacy. In addition, the learning strategy supported students different cognitive styles (Field Independent/FI and Field Dependent/FD, although scaffolding was still needed for tasks that required more complex thinking such as scientific literacy, particularly for FD. This research indicates that a CSBLS has the potential to improve students' environmental knowledge and scientific literacy throughout the learning process.

Different approaches are employed when teaching environmental issues. One approach, termed the "environmental scientific approach," perceives environmental education as part of life or earth sciences, providing factual, scientific knowledge. Another approach, termed the "environmental sustainability citizenry approach", emphasizes sustainability and balancing between the need to move forward technologically and economically and the need to protect the environments in which we and others live. A synthesis of the two approaches encompasses both environmental scientific literacy and environmental sustainability citizenry. This article examines the degree to which changes in the emphasis given to the two approaches worldwide and in Israel impacted the achievements of Israeli eighth graders in this field. Based primarily on data from the Third Mathematics and Science Study-(TIMSS), the findings indicate that the TIMSS tests were biased toward the "environmental scientific" approach, in contrast to the more recent and accepted trends of the "environmental sustainability citizenry approach" embedded in Israeli curriculum. The assessment of environmental achievements in Israel, that was based on the biased test of the TIMSS study, fails to accurately reflect both the curricular changes that have taken place in Israel in this field and students' achievements, thus rendering this assessment inappropriate for this purpose.

Promoting a functional scientific literacy entails preparing people to effectively engage and make decisions regarding real-world socioscientfic issues (SSI) through consideration of the relevant products and processes of science, as well as social, cultural, environmental, and ethical factors. Students can develop a functional scientific literacy through place-based pedagogical approaches focused on real-world SSI that augment formal classroom instruction. This quasi-experimental triangulated mixed-methods study investigated how 50 fourth graders in an intervention group, in comparison to their 79 classmates, developed nature of science (NOS) views through experiencing a place-based Missouri River SSI education Program (MRSIP). Salient themes of the month-long MRSIP included Missouri River human impacts, pallid sturgeon decline and recovery, and how scientists investigate and manage those issues. Our findings demonstrate that the MRSIP participants and their non-participating classroom peers expressed NOS views ranging from those that were largely stereotypical (e.g., science must proceed by a set method in a laboratory) to those that transcended stereotypes (e.g., science proceeds by many methods implemented in various field settings). However, after students participated in the MRSIP, they expressed significantly more sophisticated non-stereotypical views about how scientists research and understand Missouri River SSI and the role science plays in resolving those issues. The comparison group of the MRSIP participating students' classmates realized no such gains across the same time period. Pedagogical implications include how place-based SSI teaching can leverage young learners' sense of place and augment their classroom experiences in ways that help them understand NOS and engage local SSI.

A comprehensive laboratory-style teaching activity involving the synthesis, characterization, and analysis of structure-activity relationships of metal-organic framework (MOF) nanozymes was developed specifically for undergraduates at Tianjin University. The students acquired familiarity with the general approach in synthesizing MOFs by solvothermal method using substituted MIL-101­(Fe)-X (MIL is an acronym for Materials of Institute Lavoisier). Several modern characterization methods were taught, including powder X-ray diffraction and fluorescence spectroscopy for assessing MIL-101­(Fe)-X crystal structures and superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activities. In particular, students were guided by the instructor to investigate the relationship between structural differences in MOFs caused by ligand changes and their SOD-like activities. The Hammett relationships were later demonstrated to be an accurate method of quantifying structure-activity relationships of MIL-101­(Fe)-Xnanozymes. By participating in this laboratory experience, students are able to improve their scientific thinking, practical abilities, and teamwork. Additionally, a fundamental principle of material design can be conveyed to undergraduates based on the structure-activity relationship, thereby deepening their understanding of nanozymes and the course's content.

Current science elective courses in Chinese high schools overemphasize subject knowledge, lack course resources, and apply a single instruction methodology. This study attempts to reform high school elective chemistry courses and aims to promote chemical science literacy in students. It takes the example of the development and practice of elective courses titled "The Mysteries of Chemistry in Intangible Cultural Heritage". This course encompasses seven chemical themes closely related to health and safety, environmental protection, and social development: combustion, compounds, aqueous solutions, metallic materials, nonmetallic materials, biomacromolecules, and natural resins. The course contents are combined with the human intangible cultural heritage to stimulate student interest by incorporating a rich experience of the chemical sciences. The course focuses on experiential learning processes and employs student-centered situational teaching and project-based learning, combining experimental learning, class discussions, and reflective essay writing. The study results reveal that the course improves academic performance and enhances student interest and self-efficacy in chemistry learning; it also provides students with continuous help in engaging in the safeguarding and inheritance of their intangible cultural heritage and substantially develops scientific literacy.

This study's general theme revolves around practical work in chemical education, and its scope is the employment of a novel inquiry strategy combined with a new openness level. We investigate how the controlled positive error, a new device for inquiry activities developed by us, affects undergraduate students' experience of an experiment and develops their scientific mind after they attend a laboratory class. Qualitative research of the case study type was carried out. The subjects were first-year students enrolled in a general chemistry course. We employed textual documents and focus groups for data gathering and found that significantly changing the pattern of a laboratory activity, despite being a challenging and effortful task, had many benefits for the student's development, such as increasing their connection to and proactivity toward the experiment.

The most obvious feature of expertise in chemistry is content knowledge, which defines the primary objectives of instruction. Research in chemistry education, and STEM education more broadly, has also devoted attention to students' developing scientific practices of reasoning, investigation, and learning. In this study, we set out to investigate how expert chemists reason about an unfamiliar question. We conducted semi-structured, think-aloud interviews with fourteen chemists, all of whom found the problem novel. In this article, we focus on how the chemists handled the situation of not-knowing. We analyzed the moments when they said ''I don't know'' (IDK), taking that as a clear, systematic marker of their not-knowing. The results elucidate two general dimensions of the chemists' reasoning and experience. First, their identifying what they do not know served substantive roles in their reasoning, including to mark that they needed to search for insight or information, or to mark a boundary to the problem space. Second, IDK statements served to help the chemists manage what they experienced socially and emotionally, such as to hedge or distance themselves from ideas they considered, or to forestall their own--or the interviewer's--negative judgments. We discuss both aspects of our findings, and we consider possible implications for instruction and for further research.

In the last decades, science literacy has been progressively emphasised as an aim of science education. However, the science education literature does not present a consensus about both the meaning of science literacy. By studying such literature, we identified some of these aspects that may also be relevant for promoting students' critical education. These are decision-making, critical thinking, critical positioning, and self-awareness-raising. Based on this review of the literature, our main goal has been that of discussing how these aspects could be inter-related and favour science literacy in the context of nature of science teaching. This does not mean coming up with a new ready definition for science literacy, but rather enhancing the discussion and supporting its understanding as something more complex, resulting from an intricate interaction of many components and that may be constantly promoted and developed in science lessons. Such a perspective can help teachers' perceptions that science literacy of their students is an attainable aim, as well as encourage them to foster it.

Bibliometric mapping serves as a method to systematically evaluate and visually demonstrate the development of a research field. CiteSpace and VOSviewer, two research tools of bibliometric mapping, were used in the present study to analyze, synthesize, and visualize the hot topics as well as frontier evolution of science education. Co-authorship analysis, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, and content analysis were conducted based on 6278 articles selected from seven SSCI journals. Researchers from countries/territories in North America, Europe, Oceania, and West and East Asia had maintained relatively tighter cooperation with each other. Highly influential literature mainly focused on the standards, methods, practice, and reflection of science education. In the past two decades, the literature on science education covered seven hot topics: conceptual issues in science education, gender, scientific argumentation, professional development, science learning, evolution, and peer review. The research on science education in the past 20 years can be divided into three phases: the first stage focused on knowledge learning, identity, and informal education; the second stage emphasized formal education, scientific literacy, and social-science issues; and the third stage highlighted scientific argumentation and STEM education.

Socio-scientific argumentation (SSA) is increasingly being recognized as a key aspect of scientific literacy. Much of the reason for this is that this skill is crucial for helping students to become active participants in twenty-first-century democratic societies in which the construction of informed and critical views of socio-scientific issues (e.g. climate change, COVID-19 vaccination, genetic testing) plays a fundamental role. The problem is that instructors rarely give students explicit and research-based opportunities to enrich their SSA skills. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide evidence that drama can be used as a platform to enrich argumentation in genetic testing. The data were derived from the written responses and the audio recordings of seventy-six university students (37 females and 39 males, 16-29 years old) in Colombia during a complete drama-based teaching-learning sequence (TLS) supervised by the same instructor. The outcomes suggest that the sequence can be used to enrich argumentation in genetic testing as it effectively provided participants with explicit opportunities to produce both arguments and counterarguments about the controversy whether the use of genetic tests among people should be encouraged. This study contributes to the literature on SSA in science education by demonstrating that drama is a promising tool to enhance argumentation about science-based social issues.

The student's scientific literacy is vital in improving students' awareness of several issues. This study was intended to describe the effect of the SETS learning approach combined with Vee Diagram on students' scientific literacy especially on Environmental Pollution Material. This study used a nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design. The survey involved 60 students who were selected using cluster random sampling technique. The quantitative data, in terms of pretest, posttest, and N-gain scores were analyzed using Independent-sample t-test at the 5% significance level. The results showed that, based in the N-gain scores, the experiment class was classified in moderate category and the control class belonged to low category. This means that the SETS learning approach combined with Vee Diagram influence student's scientific literacy on Environmental Pollution Material. Therefore, this combination is recommended to be implemented in class to enhance students' scientific literacy skills.

The aim of this study was to determine the scientific literacy skills of students at junior high school (JHS) in biology teaching in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. This research was a survey research. Sampling was selected through a progressive random sampling technique with stratification. The research samples were four junior high schools, they are: JHS 4 Makassar, JHS 26 Makassar, JHS 2 Maros, and JHS 4 Sinjai with the total samples were 235 students. Each school was represented by 2 classes. The results of research showed that the students of junior high school who were able to understand the inquiry method that leads to scientific knowledge as much as 17.02%, and ability to organize, analyse, and interpret the quantitative data and scientific information as much as 36.23%. Overall, the conclusion of this study was the scientific literacy of junior high school students in biology teaching was still low. The constructivist learning method should be used by the teacher, such us using inquiry method and completed by an innovative media and learning resources to enhance students' scientific literacy.

The purpose of this research was to describe the learning implementation, students activities, the student's science literacy ability, learning outcame, and response of students to the implementation of techno-ecopreneurship-based student worksheets on thermochemical topic. This research used pre-experimental design with one group pretest-posttest design. The targets of this study were 34 students in XI grade science in Senior High School 3 Sidoarjo. Data collection methods were observation, test, and questionnaire. The research showed the following results: (1) the syntax implementation of guided inquiry learning model is 86.5% and 88.5% with a very good category; (2) The activities of students during the learning process were said to be implemented well because the percentage of relevant student activities time is greater compared to the student activities which were not relevant, in which relevant student activity in first meeting was 83.5% and in second meeting was 90.5%; (3) Student learning outcomes at the pretest 0% was complete, and 100% was incomplete but at the posttest 78.78% is complete and 21.22% is incomplete; (4) The results of students scientific literacy ability have increased from pretest to posttest that is 18 to 74 with an N-gain value of 0.55; (5) Students gave positive responses to the implementation of techno-ecopreneurship-based student worksheet on thermochemical topic to train scientific literacy ability.

The development of good learning resources on inquiry learning model with science literacy as a strategy to facilitate active learning has become a trend in education. Critical thinking ability is needed as a strategy to build students competencies in problem solving and discovery as required in science learning. This study aims to develop a set of learning material on inquiry-based learning with science literacy for the teaching of Chemical kinetics that can improve students' critical thinking skills and students' achievement. The study is conducted through the development of inquiry learning models with science literacy, standardization, and implementation of the learning model as a teaching resource in the class. The study was carried out with involvement of 93 students in the Department of Chemistry, Universitas Negeri Medan. Research data was presented as students' learning outcomes, those are obtained from assessments of critical thinking skill by using assessment sheets, and students' achievement from marks of submitted reports and evaluation test. The results showed that a standard inquiry learning model with science literacy has been developed for Chemical kinetics topic, where the feasibility is categorized to be very good (M = 3.60±0.06). Implementation of the developed learning model in the teaching and learning activities has proven to be able to improve students' critical thinking skills. Students' thinking abilities are classified as very good, where the achievements are obtained in the range of 72-97%.

Regarding 21st-century learning, scientific literacy is an important competency which must be owned by students. Nevertheless, scientific literacy of Indonesian students has been recognized in low level. This study aimed to describe students' scientific literacy in Bryophyta topic using problem-based learning. This Classroom Action Research (CAR) used the Kemis & Mc.Taggart research design. This study involved 30 students of X graders in Kristen Satya Wacana Senior High School. Students' scientific literacy was measured using a test which comprised of 15 MCQs and 5 essay questions. The data obtained was analyzed using N-gain score. The results indicated that students' scientific literacy was improved from cycle 1 (45.20) to cycle 2 (65.59) as they learnt about Bryophyta. The use of PBL in learning Bryophyta accommodates students' activities to promote their scientific literacy. Scientific activities in PBL strongly support the development of students' scientific literacy.

Reading and understanding scientific literature is an essential skill for any scientist to learn. While students' scientific literacy can be improved by reading research articles, an article's technical language and structure can hinder students' understanding of the scientific material. Furthermore, many students struggle with interpreting graphs and other models of data commonly found in scientific literature. To introduce students to scientific literature and promote improved understanding of data and graphs, we developed a guided-inquiry activity adapted from a research article on snow chemistry and implemented it in a general chemistry laboratory course. Here, we describe how we adapted figures from the primary literature source and developed questions to scaffold the guided-inquiry activity. Results from semi-structured qualitative interviews suggest that students learn about snow chemistry processes and engage in scientific practices, including data analysis and interpretation, through this activity. This activity is applicable in other introductory science courses as educators can adapt most scientific articles into a guided-inquiry activity.

This collaborative action research project documents the exploration and student learning outcomes of COVID-19 socioscientific issue-based lessons. Analysis of student interviews, surveys, and work, combined with classroom observations, revealed that COVID-19 socioscientific issue-based lessons improved students' conceptual understanding of the science behind pandemic control measures, increased their feelings of personal responsibility in responding to COVID-19, and broadened their perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19 on diverse populations. The framework used to design the lesson series--Three Visions of Scientific Literacy--facilitated the authors' response to curriculum reform. Future use of the framework and implications for socioscientific issue-based teaching are discussed.

In this paper, we argue that the current science curricula are failing to educate students to be competent outsiders to science. Historically, science education has rested on two premises. The first is that it is possible for students to acquire sufficient scientific knowledge from K-12 education to become intellectually independent. That is that science education can produce individuals capable of evaluating scientific evidence and arguments critically for themselves. This belief is what underlies many of the conceptions of scientific literacy and is the basis of the rationale that is used to sustain and justify what is offered in nearly all countries across the globe. The second is the belief that the science that students will encounter will have been filtered such that it can be trusted. Nothing today could be further from the truth. Today, misinformation abounds and much of it purports to be scientific. Very few conceptions of scientific literacy have considered how students can be prepared to evaluate the claims that abound on social media. Current conceptions of "scientific literacy," we argue, are failing to articulate the competencies and knowledge required in today's changed context. In what follows, we lay out our arguments for why it is time to rethink the conception of scientific literacy by considering what it requires to be a competent outsider to science. Then drawing on our recent report, we lay out what might be done within science education to address the specific phenomenon of misinformation.

Many studies have characterized students' difficulties in understanding and reasoning about scientific mechanisms. Some of those studies have drawn implications on teaching mechanisms and how to guide students while reasoning mechanistically. In this theoretical article, I claim that one component that has not garnered much attention in the science education literature, unlike other components of mechanistic explanations, is the black box construct, that is, missing mechanistic parts within mechanistic explanations (explanatory black box). By reviewing the literature on mechanisms and mechanistic explanations in the philosophy of science and cognitive psychology, I argue that explanatory black boxes are an inherent part of mechanistic explanations and that their recognition is essential for learning mechanisms, scientific literacy, and understanding the nature of science. Examples from biology education are provided as a case of a complex multileveled scientific field. In the absence of a pedagogical approach for teaching explanatory black boxes, I turn to studies and frameworks from computer science education that may guide educators on how to begin discussing this construct in the science classroom.

Scientific literacy can be promoted through oral and written argumentative practice. Collaborative discourse has proven effective in fostering conceptual understanding, especially when discussions are developed under deliberative goals. Likewise, writing tasks as argumentative syntheses stand out for its epistemic value and its contribution to constructive learning processes. However, there are no known educational interventions that have combined these two didactic activities to teach science. The objective of this research was to compare the impact of four intervention programs, based on deliberative dialogues and argumentative synthesis writing activities, on the learning of socio-scientific content. The four programs resulted from the combination of two instructional components (Explicit Instruction; Guide), while deliberative dialogues and argumentative syntheses were constant elements. We conducted a pre-post quasi-experimental study in which participated 151 Spanish third grade secondary school students. Socio-scientific learning was evaluated through a content test made up of open questions. The results showed all students progressed in their socio-scientific knowledge. Instructional practices did not have a direct effect on content learning. However, we observed an indirect effect of explicit instruction on learning socio-scientific content, through learning of argumentative synthesis writing. Besides, we found a positive relation between progression in synthesis writing and knowledge acquisition.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between high school students' understandings of aspects about nature of science (NOS) and their argumentation skills, particularly whether informed conceptions of NOS contribute to better argumentation skills. Participants, a total of 125 Grade 10 students, responded to an open-ended questionnaire, "Controversial Socioscientific Issues Questionnaire (CSI)," that involved two scenarios addressing socioscientific issues (SSI) about genetically modified food and water fluoridation. Each of the two scenarios was accompanied by two sets of questions that address argumentation and NOS. Stepwise regression analyses were performed on data from the participants' responses with three NOS aspects (subjective, tentative, and empirical) as independent variables and the argumentation components (argument, counterargument, and rebuttal) as dependent variables (each at a time). The results demonstrated positive correlation between argumentation and NOS. Moreover, the results showed that the tentative, empirical, and subjective aspects are significant predictors of the argumentation components with some variations depending on the context (whether genetically modified food or water fluoridation). These results provide concrete evidence illustrating the associations between argumentation and NOS knowledge within two SSI (water fluoridation and genetically modified food).

Raising scientifically literate citizens has been the main concern of the science education community. Socioscientific issues (SSIs) provide a context to facilitate individuals to expand their epistemic understanding and develop scientific reasoning skills such as evidence-based argumentation and consensus building. In this qualitative research, we examined how preservice middle school science teachers (PSTs) embedded the nature of science (NOS) aspects via physical dynamic models (PDM) that they developed on SSIs. We specifically focused on how PSTs scientifically explained the SSIs in their PDMs by explicitly incorporating and reflecting on the NOS aspects. Slightly more than half of the groups succeeded in developing models with dynamic/functional feature that enabled their classmates to predict, hypothesize, test, observe, infer, and generate an explanation of the SSI during presentations. Almost half of the PSTs could not differentiate between demonstration and functional/dynamic models. We additionally used the VNOS-C questionnaire to assess PSTs' NOS understanding at the beginning and end of the semester. The VNOS-C results showed that PSTs improved on all NOS aspects at the end of the semester. However, among seven NOS aspects that we focused on in our study, creativity and imagination, empirical evidence, and inferential reasoning were explicitly used in PSTs' presentations of SSI using PDMs. Their presentations did not address subjectivity, tentativeness, social and cultural influence, and theory and law aspects. We recommend replicating this study in different science contexts. Integrating NOS aspects into physical dynamic models needs to be further investigated.

This article explores ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) through a Freirean lens of critical consciousness, dialogue, and transformation. The purpose is to draw from where there have been processes of engagement of sociopolitical action in science and how these spaces can become meaningful entry points to take toward making a "sociopolitical turn" in science education, as well as in science more broadly. Current practices in science education do not adequately prepare educators and students to challenge and interrupt injustices that we are emersed in. ACT UP is a well-studied example of when non-specialists engaged with science and scientific knowledge making to shift power and policy. Paulo Freire's pedagogy was developed alongside social movements. By examining ACT UP through a Freirean lens, I explore themes of relationality, social epistemology, consensus, and dissensus that emerged when a social movement engaged with science to achieve its goal. My intent is to add to the ongoing dialogues of approaching science education as a practice of critical consciousness and liberatory world making.