Assessing literacy in science Evaluation of scientific news briefs.doc

Assessing Literacy in Science: Evaluation of Scientific News Briefs 科學素養的評價：評價的科學新聞集錦 CONNIE A. KORPAN, GAY L. BISANZ, JEFFREY BISANZ Centre for Research in Child Development, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada JOHN M. HENDERSON Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Received 15 May 1996; revised 5 March 1997; accepted 5 March 1997 答：康尼科潘，同性戀屬BISANZ，杰弗裡BISANZ研究中心在兒童發展心理學系，阿爾伯塔大學，埃德蒙頓，從頭T6G 2E9，加拿大約翰M韓達誠心理學系，美國密西根州立大學，東蘭辛，美國密歇根48824，美國收到15 1996年5月修訂的1997年3月5日，接受1997年3月5日 ABSTRACT: Media reports of scientific research are a pervasive and important source of new scientific knowledge. Evaluating conclusions found in those reports is an important form of scientific literacy. We examined the types of requests for information made by university students as they evaluated scientific news briefs. Students generated a variety of requests for information, focusing most often on how the research was conducted and why the results might have occurred. Fewer requests were made for information about what was found, who conducted the research, and where it was conducted. Least frequent were requests about related research. This pattern of findings may reflect emphasis of instruction in science classrooms. Requests appeared to be influenced by three dimensions of news briefs: plausibility of the conclusions; typicality (the degree to which the phenomena described are typical in biology, chemistry, and physics); and personal familiarity with the phenomena. Individual differences in age, number of science courses completed in university, and degree of belief in paranormal events were correlated with the types of requests made. Models of the evaluative process are needed to gain additional insights into how students’ knowledge, dimensions of text, and personal characteristics interact in the course of learning. ? 1997 John Wiley Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 81:515–532, 1997. 媒體報導的科研是一個普遍和重要的來源，新的科學知識。評價結論，