Aresearch Of High School Students Scientific Literacy And The Physical Science Literacy

China Science and Technology Association conducted its eighthsurvey on Chinese civic scientific literacy, and the findings showthat the proportion of citizens with basic scientific literacy in2010was3.27percent, lagging20years behind Japan, Canada, andother major developed countries and regions in the European Union.In2003, The Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of Chinaissued its “High School Physics Curriculum Standards”, whichclearly stated that the aim of physics curriculum was to improvescientific literacy of all students. Evidently, to improvescientific literacy of our citizens has been put on the agenda. Thehigh school student is a member of our citizens. What is the levelof their scientific literacy and scientific physics literacy?Based on PISA definition of scientific literacy and theinternational standards measurement system on scientific literacy,namely Miller test, questionnaires are designed to investigate thescientific literacy of high school students in four schools ofdifferent levels.The following findings are attained:(1) theaverage score of high school students on science literacy is81.92points, which means that the percentage of high school students whohave basic scientific literacy is up to86%, indicating that thehigh school students have a higher level of scientific literacy thanthat of the public. However, these high school students show a lackof competence in mastering and applying these scientific methods.(2). The average score of physics literacy is61.15points, and thepercentage of high school students who have basic physics literacyis10.1%, which is relatively low compared with the overallscientific literacy rate.(3). The score in the history of physicsis noticeably low. Some scholars’ suggestion to facilitate thecultivation of physical science literacy by emphasizing the historyof physics seems to lack fundamental theoretical support.(4).Academic Proficiency Test on physics in high school can only teststudents’ knowledge in this field rather than their science literacy levels. This thesis aims to help the high school in Guiyangstrengthen the implementation of “High School Physics CurriculumStandards” by learning the lessons from the above-mentionedfindings, hence to lay a solid foundation to achieve the overallgoal of curriculum standards.