Key aspects of scientific competence for citizenship: A Delphi study of the expert community in Spain

Abstract

Recent decades have seen an increasing emphasis on linking the content and aims of science teaching to what the average citizen requires in order to participate effectively in contemporary society, one that is heavily dependent on science and technology. However, despite attempts to define what a scientific education for citizenship should ideally involve, a comprehensive set of key aspects has yet to be clearly established. With this in mind, the present study sought to determine empirically the extent of any consensus in Spain regarding the principal aspects of scientific competence that citizens should possess in order to function adequately in everyday life. This was done by means of a three-stage Delphi process involving 31 participants drawn from among leading and acknowledged Spanish scholar-scientists and engineers, researchers and private sector scientists, philosophers of science, science educators, and science communicators. The outcome of this process was a set of five aspects for which there was both consensus and stability. Several of these aspects were also found to be interrelated. There was a tendency for higher ratings to be given to aspects related to attitudes and/or values than to those referring to knowledge. It was in relation to the latter, along with other aspects concerning the nature of science, that discrepancies were observed among the different professional groups surveyed. Comparison of the present results with the content of previous reports indicates that in recent decades the ability to think critically and skills related to the interpretation of information have been considered to be important aspects for citizens to acquire as part of their scientific education. It is argued that the five key aspects identified in this study should be considered jointly in the context of school science education, since they are interrelated skills that citizens will require when tackling important issues and making decisions in various spheres of their life (personal, social, professional, etc.). # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 2015. Keywords: science education; scientific competence; citizenship; Delphi method This paper presents the results of an empirical study based on the Delphi method that sought to answer the following question: What science and technology related knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values do citizens need to possess in order to participate effectively in the different areas of their lives? This study formed part of a broader research project whose main objective was

Competencias Docentes Para Desarrollar La Competencia Científica en Educación Primaria

“…Valorar la repercusión social de los productos de la ciencia y la tecnología TABLA 1. Indicadores de competencia docente para desarrollar la competencia científica del alumnado Para la formulación de los indicadores de competencias docentes se tomó como referencia el componente científico en su dimensión conceptual, metodológica y actitudinal, y el componente didáctico, junto con las siete capacidades didácticas propuestas por Cañal (2012) para enseñar la competencia científica, el perfil de competencias docentes sobre la enseñanza de las ciencias basada en la investigación escolar, incluyendo el conocimiento del contenido, el conocimiento didáctico del contenido y las actitudes de los profesores de Alake-Tuenter, Biemans, Tobi y Mulder (2013), los cinco aspectos de la competencia científica del estudio de Blanco-López et al (2015), así como los cuestionarios utilizados por el equipo en anteriores proyectos (Martín del Pozo y De-Juanas, 2009; De-Juanas, Martín del Pozo y Pesquero, 2016). Asimismo se han tenido en cuenta los estándares de aprendizaje de las ciencias que los maestros deben alcanzar con sus alumnos (NSTA, 2014).…”

“…Los indicadores 16, 17 y 18 pertenecen a ámbi-tos de competencias transversales a las áreas curriculares. Los indicadores 16 y 17 se refieren a competencias docentes que tienen que ver con la implicación de las familias y la relación con los agentes sociales, puestos de relieve por la Comisión Europea (2015) como ya se ha indicado; y el trabajo en equipo del profesorado (indicador 18), aspecto este último aconsejado en el estudio de Blanco-López et al (2015). Y, por último, el resto de los indicadores se refieren al conocimiento didáctico del contenido, en lo que respecta a lo que Alake-Tuenter et al (2013) denominan diseño pedagógico (indicadores 1, 2, 3 y 4), facilitar la investigación de los alumnos (indicadores 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 y 15) y evaluación (indicador 11).…”

Knowledge as an aspect of scientific competence for citizenship: results of a Delphi study in Spain

“…In order of the degree of consensus reached in Round 3 these aspects were: (1) critical attitude/thinking; (2) individual responsibility; (3) ability to search for, analyse, synthetize and communicate information; (4) ability to reason, analyse, interpret and construct an argument in relation to scientific phenomena and knowledge; and (5) ability to work as part of a team (Blanco-López, España-Ramos, et al, 2015). It can be seen that these aspects refer not to knowledge but to attitudes/values and skills, and that many of them have a scope that goes beyond that of science education.…”

“…The analysis presented in this article is based on data obtained in a Delphi study (Blanco-López, España-Ramos, et al, 2015) we conducted in order to gather the opinions of Spanish experts from different science-related fields regarding the key scientific competencies that citizens should ideally possess. The results of that study revealed a wide range of responses covering knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.…”

El empleo espontáneo de conectores y vocabulario relacionado con las ciencias: Implicaciones en la argumentación escrita

“…La situación se complica luego de reconocer que la "escritura en ciencias" es una de las cualidades (entre otras) con la que se espera cuente la ciudadanía (Balgopal, Laybourn, Wallace y Brisch, 2015;Blanco-López, España-Ramos y González-García, 2015;Feinstein, 2015;Schoerning, Hand, Shelley y Therrien, 2015;Takao y Kelly, 2003;Xiao y Sandoval, 2015). Bajo esta perspectiva se asume a la argumentación escrita y espontánea (Archila, 2015a;Levin y Wagner, 2006) como un medio para potenciar la alfabetización científica que, a su vez, permite acceder a las concepciones en ciencias de los estudiantes (reveladas por el vocabulario recurrente) y el nivel de elaboración de sus escritos (expresado en el tipo de conectores utilizado) (Archila, 2015a).…”