Core Literacy Of Science Curriculum For Primary School Students: Structure, Assessment And Development

Current education focused on curriculum reform based on core competencies.It is not clear which elements are included in the core competencies of science curriculum(CCSC)for primary school students(CCSCP)in the new era,the evaluation framework is not perfect,and the characteristics of the development of the CCSCP need to be further systematically studied.These all restrict the reform of science curriculum.From the perspective of diversification and localization,this research constructs the structure and evaluation framework of the CCSCP,and summarizes the learning stage characteristics of the CCSCP based on the evaluation,providing theory and empirical evidence for the reform of science curriculum.We mainly did four aspects of research:First,the structure and assessment framework of the CCSCP were constructed.Beginning,we compared the core competencies in the current elementary science curriculum standards of 12 countries and regions from the perspective of international comparison.From the perspective of historical evolution,we conducted a textual analysis of China's primary science curriculum standards documents over the past 100 years.From the perspective of citizen science core competencies,52 stakeholders were conducted unstructured in-depth interviews.We found that:current international science education and stakeholders attach importance to cultivating students' scientific knowledge,scientific inquiry,scientific thinking and scientific attitude;the connotation of scientific inquiry and scientific attitude were constantly enriched,the core position of scientific thinking was prominent;our science curriculum standards emphasized the concept of harmony between man and earth.On this basis,this research comprehensively considered the educational value of science courses,the characteristics of science courses,international trends,historical inheritance and practical needs,constructed the structure of the CCSCP,and determined the four dimensions and 13 observation indicators of the assessment framework.According to the role of various observation indicators in scientific discovery and teaching,based on existing research,this research had determined the progression variables of each indicator and made learning progressions structure on each indicator.Second,the evaluation tools for the CCSCP have been developed and optimized.Based on the CCSCP structure and evaluation framework,we developed performance tasks as assessment tool.Through trial test,preliminary test and actual test,the learning progressions of the CCSCP was revised,and the structure of the CCSCP was verified.The assessment tool had good expert validity and coding consistency.The results of multi-dimensional Rasch model analysis run by Conquest 4.0 software showed that the overall quality of the assessment tool was good;the four-dimensional structure can fit students' data better than the one-dimensional,two-dimensional and three-dimensional structure;the three-level performance standard division of 13 observation indicators was more reasonable.Third,it defined the performance standards of the CCSCP.In order to objectively understand the development status of the CCSCP,this study conducted a cluster analysis of the clinical interview performance of 235 students,and divided the performance in the CCSCP and four dimensions into three categories.The results of discriminant analysis showed that there are significant differences between the three categories,and 94.5%of students could be correctly classified,indicating that the division of the three categories was effective and reliable.On this basis,combined with the specific performance of the three categories of students,the performance standards of the CCSCP and four dimensions were described from the quantitative and qualitative aspects.Fourth,it summarized the characteristics of students' performance of the CCSCP in different learning stage.Using defined performance standards to research on students' development of CCSCP.Through descriptive statistics,analysis of variance,chi-square analysis,and multi-class logistic regression analysis,the results showed that the performance of the CCSCP and 4 dimensions all improved with the increase of the semester,and there are significant differences between the performances in different semesters.The low-stage students mainly perform at level 1,the middle-stage students mainly perform at level 2,and the high-stage students mainly perform at level 3.