IBSE Final

Chapter 5 Science Teaching and assessing Students’ Scientific literacy

tHE tEACHING OF SCIENCE: 21 st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES 105

As opposed to assessments of science content, such as most state, national

(NAEP), and international (TIMSS) assessments, PISA presents students

with problems set in contexts that represent actual situations that one may

encounter in life. PISA science units are developed in such a way that under-

standing science would not only benefit but also be required to adequately

address the issues.

PISA begins with a perspective that centers on the capacity of students to

identify scientific issues, explain phenomena scientifically, and use scientific evidence as

they encounter, interpret, solve, and make decisions in life situations that involve

science and technology. This discussion frames a central point of the PISA 2006

science assessment: the assessment focused on what 15-year-olds know, value,

and are able to do within reasonable and appropriate personal, social, and global

contexts that involve environmental issues.

The term scientific literacy may be emphasized for the following reasons: It

is recognized as representing the goals of science education that should apply

to all students; it connotes a broadness and an applied nature to the purposes

of science education; it represents a continuum of scientific knowledge and the

cognitive abilities associated with scientific inquiry; it incorporates multiple

dimensions; and it incorporates the relationships between science and tech-

nology. It also is important to note that PISA 2006 includes attitudes, as they

are essential to understanding the response to science-related life situations.

For more information about the design and results of PISA 2006 Science, see

the following resources: Bybee 2008; Bybee and McCrae 2009; Bybee, McCrae,

and Laurie 2009; OECD 2009). The next sections present examples of assessment

units from PISA 2006 Science. These discussions provide greater detail about

assessing components of scientific literacy.

Assessment Units From PISA 2006

The appendix displays two examples of units from PISA 2006 Science. The units

demonstrate environmental contexts, and the narratives report on competencies

and levels of proficiency for scientific literacy.

Proficiency Levels in Science

Student scores in science for PISA 2006 were grouped into six proficiency levels.

The six proficiency levels represented groups of tasks of ascending difficulty,

with Level 6 as the highest and Level 1 as the lowest. The grouping into profi-

ciency levels was undertaken on the basis of substantive considerations relating

to the nature of the underlying competencies.

Table 5.4 (p. 106) is a map of science questions from the two examples, illus-

trating the proficiency levels and scientific competencies.