An assessment of how scientific literacy-related aims are actualised in the National Primary Science curricula in China and Finland

ABSTRACT

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses principally on knowledge, followed by competencies and attitudes, respectively. The learning context was seen to be thoroughly integrated with the content in both countries. However, the curricula are written in different ways. Generally, the literacy objectives for both curricula are based on scientific knowledge (Vision I) and the application of knowledge-based skills in situations (Vision II). However, they are characterised by implicit views that derive from the pursuit of the value-driven transformation of individuals and society achieved through science education (Vision III). The Chinese curriculum appears to favour the Anglo-American curriculum tradition, whereas the Finnish curriculum appears to be more attached to the Bildung-Didaktik tradition in terms of core tasks and the specification of objectives. The recommendation is that Vision III should be included in the science curricula, and should explicitly relate to social and scientific topics with a view to furthering a scientifically literate public.

KEYWORDS:

• Science curriculum
• scientific literacy
• PISA
• China
• Finland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Yan Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5075-6039

Jari Lavonen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2781-7953

Kirsi Tirri http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5847-344X

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Scholarship Council: [Grant Number 201406040028].