An assessment of civic scientific literacy in Japan: development of a more authentic assessment task and scoring rubric

Scientific literacy has been measured by a variety of assessment tools in the past few decades. International surveys such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) emphasize the importance of scientific literacy. Scientific literacy is now regarded as a significant learning goal in science education. TIMSS assesses the mastery of scientific knowledge and method, while PISA focuses on the use of scientific knowledge and methods in measuring scientific literacy. On the other hand, adults’ scientific literacy has been measured mainly from the perspective of mastery of scientific knowledge and skills, although a great deal of the research in this area highlights the importance of use of scientific knowledge and skills, and decision-making in an authentic context. It is considered necessary to propose a new tool that can assess unmeasured aspects of the scientific literacy of adults as described above, particularly focusing on civic scientific literacy required for citizens in democratic society. In this paper, the author describes the development of the Assessment of Civic Scientific Literacy (ACSEL). A total of 401 Japanese general citizens aged over 20 years old participated in this study via an Internet Research System. First of all, the reliability and validity of ACSEL are examined in order to confirm whether it can be practically used or not. Secondly, the author reports the responses for each item. Finally, the individual contributions of gender, age, and educational background on civic scientific literacy scores are investigated to identify determinants.