Context-based learning (CBL) approaches have been recommended and expanded in science education to make science more relevant to students by connecting science content with students' daily life. Subsequently, in order to implement CBL at school, a group of scenarios has been produced by several stakeholders. However, there is a lack of resources to measure effectively what makes a good scenario. Thus, this study aims to develop and validate a scenario evaluation instrument to examine students' perspectives on science career-related scenarios through the lens of relevance and interest. For this purpose, 25 science career-related scenarios and a measurement tool, Scenario Evaluation with Relevance and Interest (SERI), were developed by a team of researchers for the EU funded MultiCO project. Then, lower secondary school students from three different countries, Estonia, Finland, and the UK, were asked to respond to the newly developed instrument after reading the scenarios, and their responses were analyzed by factor analyses and multivariate analysis of variance. According to the result, this instrument has good construct validity and reliability. However, it indicates one issue of discriminant validity between two factors, individual dimension and societal dimension. Also, significant gender differences were found in the Estonian sample regarding students' perspectives on the scenarios. Possible interpretations of the results and implications of the suggested measurement tool are discussed.

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Developing student self-efficacy and conceptualizing the importance of core ideas are seen as important learning areas in science education. Such core ideas can be elucidated with respect to the science discipline as well as interdisciplinary learning. Schools can be expected to promote high levels of students' self-efficacy in acquiring major disciplinary ideas and guiding students toward recognizing the importance of gaining work and life skills. This research sought to develop models describing students' gains in perceived self-efficacy and importance of work and life skills as well as indicating the relationship with both disciplinary and interdisciplinary core ideas in science education. Using a validated instrument, data were collected from Grade 8 (n = 218) (14-15 years old) and Grade 11 (n = 95) (17-18 years old) students. Models were created based on confirmatory factor analysis and parallel analysis. This research shows that there is need to make changes in secondary school studies so as to more clearly recognize a framework for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary core ideas, shown to be important for enabling students to prepare for their future life and careers.

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The Natural Science Education Standards (NSES) has defined scientific literacy as knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts which helps us to make personal decisions, participate in cultural and civic speculation and take part in economic productivity. In order to assess students` cognitive components of scientific literacy we need a reliable and valid instrument, appropriate for the survey and easily usable by students, teachers and researchers. The aim of the study is to evaluate concept mapping as an assessment tool for determining cognitive aspects of scientific literacy. Students` concept maps can be assessed by different measures, for example, number of concepts, number and quality of propositions, concept centrality, size and hierarchy of the concept map, clusters in the maps. Our aim is to identify measures which are relevant and valid for assessing students` cognitive components of scientific literacy. Concept mapping was used as an assessment method in an Estonian large scale study (LoteGym, 2011(LoteGym, -2014. The results from the PISA-like test were compared with the results obtained from the concept maps. The correlation analyses showed that as a predictor for students' cognitive components of scientific literacy are better suitable the quality measures of concept mapping (e.g. number of high quality propositions). The analysis of the concept maps also showed, that students intend to create more propositions inside the "everyday life" cluster than inside the "subject" cluster or between these two clusters.

This research was based on the concern that students didn’t see the need for the acquisition of science skills and knowledge perceived as important in relation to different society issues and the world of work. The aim was to determine gymnasium students perceived self-efficacy towards working life skills as well as science curriculum, content-related topics. The sample was composed of grade 12 (N=1375) 18-19-year-old students. Data were obtained using a 4-point Likert scale questionnaire seeking to determine students’ perceived self-efficacy towards working life skills and topics in the science curriculum linked to disciplinary core ideas. In general, students perceived their self-efficacy to be above average towards most needed working life skills. However, it was much lower in areas related to problem-solving skills and understanding the nature of science. Results also indicated that the self-efficacy associated with purely Physics curriculum-related topics stood out as being much lower than for the other school science subject areas. Findings suggested there was a need to re-thinking the way science content was presented to students and to consider whether and how this could be restructured around core ideas in science in order to promote the development of problem-solving skills as an important aspect in enhancing working life skills. Keywords: core ideas, working life skills, self-efficacy, science curriculum topics, science education.

<p style="text-align: justify;">This longitudinal study focuses on evaluating grade 7-9 school students’ perceptions of intervention modules intended to be relevant, as well as promoting learning attributes to raise awareness of science-related careers. Students are taught through six purposely developed and designed career-related teaching–learning modules (C-TLMs). Each module is initiated by means of a career-related scenario, followed up by promoting conceptual science learning plus drawing attention to careers to which each module intends to relate. Student perceptions are obtained by means of a questionnaire after each module with respect to its relevance and also the mean by which the learning environment raise interest, enjoyment and motivation associated with career awareness. Outcomes show that, in general, students participating in this study agree that the developed C-TLMs are relevant and students value the learning experienced through the different module contexts. Nevertheless, student appreciation of the specific inclusion of career awareness components in the modules is mixed.</p>

Uurimuse eesmärk on longituuduuringule tuginedes kirjeldada gümnaasiumiõpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse kujunemise protsessi dünaamikat. Töös kasutatud originaalinstrument koosneb neljast osast: neljast kontekstipõhisest ülesandest, teaduse olemuse ja enesehinnangu küsimustikest ning mõistekaardist. Representatiivse valimiga uuringus osalesid õpilased 42 koolist. Uurimistulemustest ilmneb, et õpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse tase kasvab gümnaasiumi jooksul minimaalselt. Õpilaste tulemused 10. ja 12. klassis on sarnased nii aineteadmiste reprodutseerimises, kõrgemat järku kognitiivsetes oskustes, teaduse olemuse mõistmises, enesehinnangus ja ka mõistekaardi kasutamises. Seega, kuigi õppekava on kompetentsuspõhine, näitavad uurimistulemused, et õpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse taseme muutus tuleneb pigem aineteadmiste juurdekasvust kui muudest komponentidest. Seetõttu on vaja alustada hariduspoliitilist diskussiooni loodusteaduslike õppeainete õpetamise nüüdisajastamiseks. Summary