The Investigation And Research Of The Shanghai Biology Teachers' Science Literacy And Relevant Problems By The New Curriculum

The basic idea of the reform in the Life Science Curriculum Standards in Middle Schools of Shanghai is the overall development of the students as a whole and help cultivate the students' science literacy. The middle school biology teachers are the practitioners of the new curriculum standards, the disseminators of the science knowledge, the torchbearers of the students' scientific interests, the introductors of the scientific methods and the advocators of the scientific spirit. The level of their science literacy plays a vital role in the cultivation of the students' science literacy. In view of this, we have investigated and researched the teachers' science literacy and relevant problems.Doing investigations and making interviews, we talked with 136 middle school biology teachers in Songjiang, Xuhui and Pudong Districts, as well as 192 middle school students. We use Mr. Miller's three methods of science literacy dimensionality: I basic scientific knowledge; II basic scientific methods; IIIthe relationship between science and society. The questionnaire is based on those Miller's methods. We pay attention to the teacher's conditions in the new curriculum reform, and get to know the difficulties and their opinions for the new curriculum. And then, we could draw some lessons and see how to make a better solution. This study uses the SPSS software to deal with the data collected.By our investigations, we have got some conclusions as follows: I the biology teachers in Shanghai has a fairly good mastery of the basic scientific knowledge, but there exists some insufficiencies: 1) they know well of the basic scientific ideas and methods;2)they have a fairly good evaluation of themselves;3) they rely on the textbooks too much;4) they don't know much about the scientific methods and the relationship between science and society. II there are no obvious differences among teachers in different districts. III the countermeasure for improving the teachers' science literacy: 1) emphasize on a lifetime study;2) improve the teachers' science literacy and strengthen the teaching in the classromms;3) increase the communications between the teachers;4) offer more training opportunities and open classes;5) establish the mode of multi-level evaluation of the teachers. The paper also reflects on some problems, such as how to improve the science value of the teachers, how to enhance the interaction between teachers and students, how to mix the science literacy and humanity literacy and how to elevate the status of the biology teachers.