Development and Exploration of an Instrument for Assessing Civic Scientific Literacy in Media (SLiM)

• Main Authors: Lin Pei-Ling, 林蓓伶
• Other Authors: Chang Chun-Yen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/72616477966871885666

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 地球科學系 === 98 === 　　The purpose of this study was to develop a new research tool, which combines the views of experts and the general public, for assessing scientific literacy in media (SLiM). A total of 50 multiple-choice items were developed based on the 95 most common scientific terms derived from textbook index(es) and appearing in media, and covering the subjects of biology (45.26%, 22 items), earth science (37.90%, 19 items), physics (11.58%, 6 items) and chemistry (5.26%, 3 items) in Taiwan. A total of 1034 students from three distinct groups (7th graders, 10th graders and　undergraduates) were invited to participate in this study. The reliability of this instrument was 0.86 (KR20). The average difficulty of the SLiM ranged from 0.19 to 0.91, and the discrimination power was 0.1 to 0.59. Our study found that the scientific terms related to biology showed the highest exposure (45.26%) in news and textbooks; the terms related to earth science were second (37.9%), and the terms related to Physics and Chemistry accounted for 11.58% and 5.26% respectively. Results of the SLiM study revealed that: (1) The male group (M=33.93, SD=7.48) received higher SLiM scores than the female group (M=31.69, SD=7.41) (t=4.24, p=0.000<0.05). (2) The 10th graders (Mean = 37.4, SD=4.1) performed better than undergraduates (Mean = 32.8, SD= 5.5) and 7th graders (Mean = 27.2, SD=8.4) with significant differences (p<0.05). (3) There existed significant difference between the low media usage group (Mean = 30.8, SD=6.42), the high media usage group (Mean = 34.1, SD=8.19) and middle media group (Mean = 33.2, SD=7.3). However, the high media usage group and middle media group were not significantly different in their performance on SLiM. (4) The science preference group (M=34.47, SD=7.11) scored higher than the non science preference group (M=31.83, SD=7.57) (t=4.7, p=0.000<0.05). Implications from the current SLiM study are finally discussed.