Benchmark of civic scientific literacy: the inspiration of international achievements and the exploration in China

Abstract

In April 2016, Ministry of Science and Technology enacted a specification called "The Benchmark of Civic Scientific Literacy in China", which had a roused general concern and dispute. This paper summarized and discussed these disputes. On this basis, the international (especially America) research work and achievements on the concept and structure of civic scientific literacy, the process to develop those civic scientific literacy standards, as well as the development of their contents were analyzed and combed. The characteristics and the regularity about the international work were summarized, which may have implications for the related research work in China. At least three characteristics were found from the documents released: (1) From the perspective of the implementation, the functions performed by each document were different. These documents were made by different agencies, and each had supporting documents and implementation measures, and performed different functions. (2) From the perspective of the content evolution, there was a research trend of "general-divide-general". The most important three documents of "2061 project" were on the base of general scientific literacy. Then, the literacy standard researches on technology, information, engineering and other aspects were performed continuously. Recently the amalgamation of disciplines was reflected from the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) and STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). (3) From the perspective of the international comparison, there was significantly different on the contents and standards among different countries in different social contexts. Developed countries had high starting point of the standard, which more emphasized on scientific methods and thinking habits, and how to use them to make judgment, decision and solve problems, while developing countries had low starting point of the standard, which pay more attention to agriculture, health, environment, and basic technology of measurement used in the daily life. Then it introduced the process and progress of research work on the benchmark of civic scientific literacy in China, especially the "The Learning Outline of Scientific Literacy for All Chinese", of which the function definition, the process of writing, the content and the application were presented. Finally, the suggestions, planning and outlooks on further civic scientific literacy standards researches in China were given in this paper.