ERD 2016: Education, Reflection, Development, Fourth Edition Attitudes toward Science and Scientific Literacy Among Romanian Young Adults Barz Daniela-Luminițaa* * Corresponding author: Barz Daniela-Luminița, [email protected] aPhD Candidate,”Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, 8 Babeş Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Abstract http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.12.7 The paper explores attitudes toward science and scientific literacy among Romanian young adults, through an online survey following key dimensions - attitudes toward science, integration of science in everyday life, beliefs in pseudoscientific phenomena and knowledge of the scientific method. Moreover, the study focuses especially on healthcare students and professionals’ scientific literacy, exploring the level of scientific reasoning within the medical field. Analysis includes multiple comparisons across different fields of study, professional areas and age groups. The novelty of the study consists in shifting the assessment of scientific literacy from general scientific knowledge toward the understanding of the scientific method. Results of the present study confirmed a deficit in scientific knowledge, but more importantly, demonstrated that the relationship between scientific literacy and attitudes toward science was a non-linear one. In fact, the study found a gap between what people accept to be scientific fact and what they choose to integrate into everyday life. Given these results, we argue that science education’s focus should be on developing scientific reasoning rather than providing scientific knowledge. © 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk Keywords: Attitudes toward science; scientific literacy; higher education; medical education. 1. Introduction Scientific literacy refers to an understanding of science and technology, of the scientific process and scientific facts. Even more so, scientific literacy requires “scientific knowledge and use of that knowledge to identify questions, acquire new knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena and to draw evidence-based conclusions about science related issues”, as PISA defined it. Scientific literacy is This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. eISSN: 2357-1330 Selection & Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Organization Committee pivotal in today’s society, especially given the complexity of modern medicine, one has to be science and health literate to be able to make informed decisions “about themselves and their family as consumers and patients” (Miller, 2011). Integration of science into everyday life proves to be the most challenging task for science education, which impacts the individual throughout his lifespan. Studies have demonstrated that most people understand scientific research and value its benefits for society, but at the same time, hold beliefs in pseudoscientific phenomena, which do not seem to be swayed over time by engaging in formal scientific training. Pseudoscientific beliefs influence the decision-making process and become increasingly important in the context of public policy, views on climate change, vaccines, stem cell research and all technological innovations. The present study focused on the current level of scientific literacy among Romanian students, but also young adults, with special attention given to the medical field. In line with research on scientific literacy until the present time, we developed a survey which focused on attitudes toward science, integration of science in everyday life, beliefs in pseudoscientific phenomena and knowledge of the scientific method. 2. Paper theoretical foundation and related literature 2.1. Overview on defining and measuring scientific literacy Scientific literacy has been defined as a collection of skills and knowledge which allow the individual to understand how scientific knowledge is gained and be able to distinguish between scientific facts and other type of information (Impey et al., 2011). Scientific literacy emerged as an interdisciplinary field, which centered on science education, but also drew knowledge from philosophy of science, history of science, pedagogy, sociology and linguistics (Duit, 2007). If we looked at the history of science education, we would find at least nine separate goals of science education which were set to develop scientific literacy (DeBoer, 2000). Defining scientific literacy has been a challenging endeavor ever since the first comprehensive attempt to quantify the public level of scientific understanding in the 1957 pioneering survey study commissioned by the National Association of Science Writers in the United States (Miller, 2010, Ed. Meinwald & Hildebrand). The 1957 research by Davis provided an initial conceptual framework for the study of scientific literacy and involved the measurement of public understanding regarding issues such as interest in science, sources of scientific information, understanding of scientific concepts and attitudes toward the benefits and limitations of science (Pardo & Calvo, 2002). This framework has been adopted by several empirical studies of public understanding of science worldwide, including the Eurobarometer. The Eurobarometer has been a source of data and insight for educational reforms and analyses for the past several decades. Apart from the Eurobarometer, PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment) has been the most renowned large-scale survey study to focus on reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. Romania’s mean score in PISA 2012 for the science section placed us as low achievers below the OECD average. The low performance with respect to scientific literacy was also confirmed in the 2009 study “STISOC – Science and Society. Interests and 49 http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.12.7 eISSN: 2357-1330 / Corresponding Author: Barz Daniela-Luminița Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference perceptions of the public regarding scientific research and research results.”, funded by the National Authority for Scientific Research. However, results on this type of large scale-monitoring studies have fueled debate with regard to educational and methodological aspects of assessment. In addition, Pardo & Calvo (2002) accused the lack of theory in studies of the public understanding of science and claimed they are based on “conceptually fuzzy scales and indicators that fall short of the standards generally applied in other areas of social-scientific research”. 2.2. Scientific literacy in higher education Although much of the attention in research on scientific literacy has been given to pre-highschool and highschool students, studies on attitudes toward science and scientific literacy in higher education have yielded meaningful insights. Results from a 20-year survey of basic scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science among nearly 10,000 undergraduate students have shown that there is little difference between first year students and general public with regard to scientific knowledge. Gains over time, up to graduation, have been estimated at 10%-15%, even though curriculum included two or three science courses. The study also found high belief in pseudoscience and were not able to identify predictors of scientific literacy (Impey et al., 2011). Prediction of scientific literacy has proven to be strenuous, most research showed no significant difference in terms of gender, academic level or field of study (Holden, 2012). According to Miller (2010), the most reliable predictors of scientific literacy were attending at least three courses of science during the undergraduate programme, followed by obtaining a college degree and staying in touch with scientific news through media sources. In line with these findings, research showed that medical students demonstrate the same low level of scientific literacy, albeit the importance of scientific reasoning in healthcare (Peña, 2004). These systematic findings of low levels of scientific literacy have led to what has come to be termed as “the deficit model” (Sturgis & Allum, 2004). According to this model, the “deficient” level of scientific literacy has been directly linked to skepticism toward science. Currently, critique against the simplistic deficit model has highlighted the more complex nature of the relationship between scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science. Health literacy in the general public and scientific literacy in medical education are crucial components for the welfare of a society. In light of the continuous technological developments and the massive amounts of data emerging every day, research in medical education has brought forth a need for change in terms of science learning and education. Aysan (2015) proposed three stages of the change process: the first stage referred to ”persuading scientists of the necessity to change science education”; the second stage involved changing scientists’ perspective, “they should not place an exaggerated importance on their own academic field and that they should see their field as being on an equal basis with other fields”; the third stage introduced the need for scientists to “condense the bulk of information on their hands to a manageable size”. Based on the conceptualization of scientific