Measuring the scientific literacy of Iranians with access to the Internet in two cognitive and behavioral dimensions

This paper aimed to measure scientific literacy among Iranian citizens with Internet access. The term scientific literacy was noticed in the 1950s; when the Second World War finished and the space race started.  Scientific literacy is important for living in contemporary knowledge-based societies. It is a continuum from nominal, functional, and conceptual-procedural to multi-dimensional literacy. This indicates that science literacy is more than just writing and reading; it deals with everyday life and social acting in the VUCA world. Since it is a vague concept, many studies try to define scientific literacy. Many studies strive to assess the level of individuals from different groups, nationalities, or comparative. To define the concept of scientific literacy, researchers show different aspects of scientific literacy such as the nature of scientific literacy; Using the scientific process for problem solving, decision making, and understanding the world; lifelong learning; and appreciating science and technology and their relation to society. Generally, these researches indicate that the interactions between three parts of science-technology-society are the main indicator of scientific literacy. The mentioned dimensions and levels indicate that a scientifically literate person should have attitudinal, social and interdisciplinary characteristics with each other, plus intellectual and cognitive capacity. It must be said that knowing basic science facts is only a small part of the components of scientific literacy, however, it is critical and forms the basic level of literacy. This is the first phase of understanding science-related issues and solving them and it is called nominal scientific literacy. Previous studies in Iran demonstrated that a comprehensive and national survey of public scientific literacy in Iran is needed.
This research includes two parts: first, it constructed and verified a questionnaire that is the assessment tool. Second, measuring public scientific literacy by that questionnaire. A qualitative approach and documentary analysis are used to construct and validate the questionnaire which includes various items and dimensions. To receive advice and opinions from experts and professors, a preliminary questionnaire was sent to them, and received their expert opinions. After applying comments, the questionnaire was revised and this process was repeated. Finally, the questionnaire related to scientific literacy with the number of 18 questions was finalized. The format of questions was Likert scale and yes/no questions. Using the Coefficient of Variation Ratio (CVR) and Cronbach’s alpha, the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed. In most studies, public scientific literacy has been measured based on dimensions such as cognition, behavior, attitude, evaluation and knowledge. However in this questionnaire, only two dimensions of cognition and behavior were studied, the first one representing nominal literacy and the other representing functional literacy.
The data collection tool was a validated questionnaire that assessed two dimensions of science literacy with 18 questions. The study's statistical population included all the citizens of Iran over 18 years of age who have access to the Internet. Since this study used an online survey, the non-list-based random sampling method was utilized. 498 completed questionnaires were received, of which 461 were correct and complete and therefore were selected. Data was entered into SPSS software and analyzed using a one sample t-test and Friedman test.
Based on findings 62.4 percent of respondents are female and the number of male participants was 37.6 percent. Most of them were literate scientifically, probably because 89 percent were educated at university, more or less. Data show that the memorization level of respondents was high and this is significant; because memorization can play an important role in learning, no matter people's age. Thus memorization of scientific data is one of the first steps for increasing and promoting levels of scientific literacy. Also, more than 70 percent of participants have participated in a scientific activity during the last six months. Most of them like to use social media to attend a virtual meeting or lecture; and the least go to the museums or are present in a real scientific event. It may be said that they prefer activities that don’t need any movement and transportation.
The results showed that the scientific literacy among the Iranian citizens was above average. Also, this study showed that scientific content in social media played a significant role in increasing functional science literacy. Also, there is a relationship between the coverage of different topics by media and the individual's knowledge about them. This study indicates that the memorization level of literacy is high which is a critical point. Since it is not enough but necessary to memorize for achieving to upper level of scientific literacy. This is because nominal scientific literacy plays a small role in the public understanding of the nature and process of science, and for decision-making, based on previous studies. This research suggests that policymakers and related institutions use the results of this research and plan regular surveys to measure the scientific literacy of Iranians. Such surveys result in a better understanding of the Iranian social context and true solutions for solving scientific and educational problems in the country.