Science Literacy

As a result of looking specifically at the work of science teachers within two related studies, we have come to two important realizations that we explore in this article. First, we argue that disciplinary literacy instruction can (and likely should) have a place in elementary, middle, and high school settings, promoting early habits of mind and norms of practice that blossom into more specialized disciplinary skills in later grades. Second, we argue that it is in the layering and intermingling of basic, intermediate, and disciplinary literacy skills across K–12 grade levels that students build solid, sophisticated, and ultimately discipline-specific literacy skills.

Background:
All of us - adults and children - are confronted with claims about the effects of treatments. Yet most of us lack the ability to understand and apply concepts that are essential for assessing these claims. As part of the Informed Health Choices project (IHC), we have developed primary school resources for children and an audio podcast for their parents to help address this problem. We are evaluating these resources in randomized trials and process evaluations in Uganda.

Objectives:
To explore why the resources did or did not have intended effects and explain variations in effects, identify other potential adverse and beneficial effects than those that were measured in the trial, explore ways in which use of the primary school resources could be scaled up, and investigate the impact of the intervention on teachers and parents.

Study design:
This is a multi-method study including qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Data collection:
Data will be collected using evaluation forms that teachers using the school resources will complete after each lesson; classroom observations of at least one lesson being taught by each teacher using the resources; interviews with teachers, head teachers, district education officers, children and their parents; and focus groups with children and teachers who have used the resources. All the interviews and focus group discussions will be audio-recorded and transcribed.

Sampling:
For quantitative analyses we will use data from all 60 schools randomized to use the IHC school resources in the trial (86 teachers and approximately 7000 children). For the qualitative analysis we aim to recruit 10% of the schools in the intervention arm (six schools). The schools will be sampled purposively based on their geographic location (rural, semi-urban, or urban) and ownership (public or private). We will interview all five district/regional education officers in the region where the trial is occurring, the six head teachers in the selected schools, and all of the grade-five teachers in those schools. We will purposively sample children in the selected schools to ensure variation in their end-of-term marks from the previous term and in how well they understood the IHC lessons. Parents will be sampled from participants in the trial of the IHC podcast.

Analysis:
We will describe the fidelity of the intervention using quantitative
data from the teachers evaluation forms
and classroom observations, and use data from all the interviews and focus groups to gain a better understanding of factors related to fidelity. We will use multivariate and univariate regression analyses to explore variation in effects and look at the data from the interviews and focus groups for other potential factors that might have led to variation. We will use data from the podcast trial to measure effects of the school resources on parents, as well as interviews with parents and children to explore their experiences. We will use data from the Claim questionnaire to measure effects of the school resources on teachers, as well as interviews to explore their experiences. We will use the framework analysis approach to analyse potential adverse and beneficial effects, barriers and facilitators to implementing and scaling up use of the resources. We will use a logic model approach to organise the findings of this process evaluation with the findings of the trial. We will summarize the key findings of the process evaluation for each key finding from the qualitative analyses and assess our confidence in the finding using a modified version of the GRADE-CERQual approach.

English for Specific Purposes courses are taught at many universities around the world and also play a critical role in the South African context. There is limited transparency and therefore little agreement regarding what the curricula of such courses should include. The aim of this study was to start a conversation about which academic abilities are essential for academic success by describing and evaluating the proposed outcomes of two academic literacy (AL) courses for science students at a South African university. The courses were examined by comparing the abilities addressed in each course to an extensive checklist of general AL abilities. The fouryear programme course was found to cover most of these AL abilities sufficiently, but the weight of several features warranted reassessment. The three-year programme course addressed fewer of these AL abilities and the weighting of several AL abilities also needed to be reassessed. The findings suggest that the four-year extended programme course curriculum offers the better AL foundation as it appears to be more successful in sufficiently addressing a variety of AL abilities. Should the learning outcomes of the two programmes be more closely aligned, students from both programmes entering second year would be equally prepared. However, it would seem that both courses would benefit from further analysis, for example feedback from various stakeholders, and consequent recurriculation.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy is becoming increasingly important, especially after the global outbreak of COVID-19. The main goal of this study was to explore the differences in vaccination conspiracy beliefs between people with a university degree coming from different scientific fields-Social Sciences & Humanities (SH) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The study was conducted on an online convenience sample of respondents with college and university degrees in Croatia (N = 577). The results revealed that respondents educated in SH proved to be more prone to vaccination conspiracy beliefs. The indirect effect through science literacy was confirmed, while this was not the case for the indirect effects through health beliefs (natural immunity beliefs) and trust in the healthcare system. However, all three variables were important direct predictors of vaccination conspiracy beliefs. Female gender and religiosity were positively correlated with vaccination conspiracy beliefs, while age was not a statistically significant predictor. The authors concluded by emphasizing the necessity of the more theoretically elaborated approaches to the study of the educational and other socio-demographic differences in vaccine hesitancy.

The goal of this study was to define the construct and establish the validity of disciplinary literacy, which has recently gained attention from the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. After defining disciplinary literacy in the four core disciplines of English language arts, science, history and social studies, and mathematics, scales were developed and administered to a snowball sample of professionals nationwide, with 857 respondents. The data showed evidence of disciplinary literacy as a multidimensional construct with three related factors: source literacy, analytic literacy, and expressive literacy. Based on EFA and CFA results, we can conclude that there are at least three types of literacy in operation among the four core disciplines. The three factors of literacy varied significantly by the four core disciplines of English/language arts (ELA), science, history and social studies, and mathematics, supporting the notion that each discipline uses literacy uniquely. This is the first study of its kind to attempt to define, quantify, and validate the construct of disciplinary literacy.

ABSTRAK Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian weak experiment yang bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan profil peningkatan kemampuan literasi sains siswa melalui pembelajaran saintifik. Desain penelitian yang digunakan adalah one group pretest-posttest design dengan sampel penelitian berjumlah 32 orang siswa kelas VII di salah satu SMP Negeri di Kabupaten Lampung Utara pada tahun ajaran 2014/2015 yang dipilih dengan menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan tes literasi sains yang terdiri dari 22 butir soal dengan empat pilihan jawaban. Data dianalisis dengan menghitung data skor rata-rata gain yang dinormalisasi (N-gain) untuk mengetahui peningkatan kemampuan literasi sains yang diukur dengan menggunakan Microsoft Excel. Data hasil penelitian kemudian dianalisis secara statistik dengan melakukan pengujian terhadap nilai pretest dan post-test siswa dengan melakukan uji normalitas, uji homogenitas, dan uji t berpasangan (paired sample t-test) dengan menggunakan program IBM SPSS Statistics 22. Hasil rata-rata N-gain yang diperoleh adalah 0,46 dan berada pada kategori peningkatan sedang. Hasil uji hipotesis pada uji t diketahui taraf signifikansinya sebesar 0,00; lebih kecil dari α = 0,05 (Sign. < 0,05) yang berarti bahwa Ho ditolak. Hasil uji ini menunjukkan bahwa kemampuan literasi sains siswa sebelum dan sesudah diterapkan pembelajaran saintifik tidak sama, atau dengan ungkapan lain dapat dikatakan bahwa terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan antara kemampuan literasi sains siswa sebelum dan sesudah diterapkannya pembelajaran saintifik. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pembelajaran saintifik dapat meningkatkan profil kemampuan literasi sains siswa pada aspek kompetensi dan aspek pengetahuan pada materi pencemaran lingkungan.

Second language (L2) instructors frequently use visual stimuli to support learning,
particularly content-specific learning; however, not all visuals are effective in supporting
curriculum. Previous research has demonstrated that while graphics may make texts
visually appealing, middle grade students, even native English speakers, are not
consistently skilled in interpreting science diagrams and integrating textual and visual
information simultaneously. This study used the Graphics Analysis Protocol (GAP; Slough
& McTigue, 2013), which has been used to assess U.S. science textbooks to evaluate how
well graphics in scientific readings support both content knowledge and second language
acquisition. Our sample included 118 graphics from 54 readings used to teach science in
English to 7th and 8th grade English language learners (ELL) in Qatar. Our findings indicate
that not only does poor integration of text and graphics fail to support student learning, but
it also may hinder overall reading comprehension. Results suggest that individuals
selecting instructional materials for ELL need to evaluate visuals as part of the selection
process, particularly with technical classes such as science. Recommendations for
practitioners are provided.