Developing a Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS): Measuring Undergraduates’ Evaluation of Scientific Information and Arguments

Abstract

Life sciences faculty agree that developing scientific literacy is an integral part of undergraduate education and report that they teach these skills. However, few measures of scientific literacy are available to assess students’ proficiency in using scientific literacy skills to solve scenarios in and beyond the undergraduate biology classroom. In this paper, we describe the development, validation, and testing of the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) in five general education biology classes at three undergraduate institutions. The test measures skills related to major aspects of scientific literacy: recognizing and analyzing the use of methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge and the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information. Measures of validity included correspondence between items and scientific literacy goals of the National Research Council and Project 2061, findings from a survey of biology faculty, expert biology educator reviews, student interviews, and statistical analyses. Classroom testing contexts varied both in terms of student demographics and pedagogical approaches. We propose that biology instructors can use the TOSLS to evaluate their students’ proficiencies in using scientific literacy skills and to document the impacts of curricular reform on students’ scientific literacy.

Scientific Literacy Skills of Seventh Grade Junior High School (SMP Negeri) Students in North Labuhanbatu Regency

“…The research did not provide treatment, manipulation or alteration to the independent variables, but describes a condition as it is (Sukmadinata, 2012). Scientific literacy skills was known from the results of the science literacy test and then percentage of correct answers was analyzed according to the indicator adapted Gormally et al (2012).…”

It Takes a Village to Make a Scientist: Reflections of a Faculty Learning Community

“…• Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI), an instrument developed by Liang et al (2008) Gormally, Brickman, & Lutz, 2012).…”

Scientific Literacy Of A Third Year Biology Student Teachers: Exploration Study

“…In [24] use the inquiry stages as a framework to develop scientific inquiry as scientific literacy assessment. Other researcher, [3] develop Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) with two main indicators, i.e., understand methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge; and Organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information. In [7] found that scientific inquiry determines scientific literacy, but not on the amount of experience doing scientific inquiry, but on the quality of experience of conducting scientific inquiry.…”

“…The third-year student will graduation for next year, so that they can low scientific literacy we can propose the chaning of learning process to improve the ability of scientific literacy. The scientific literacy of biology student teachers were assess by using two instruments, based on -characteristic and step inquiry according [3,24], and the dimensions of scientific literacy by (Bybee, 2003) cited by [21].…”