Science literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling

Indicator Description

Scientific literacy of 15 year-old students.

What Have We Found

New Zealand is continuing its high performance in scientific literacy at the senior secondary level, with only one out of thirty OECD countries achieving a significantly higher mean score than New Zealand. 

Why This Is Important

Scientific literacy assists students to participate as responsible and informed members of society, and as productive contributors to New Zealand's economy and future.

Attainment at senior secondary level contributes to preparation for successful participation in tertiary education, and the ability to contribute to, and participate in, a changing labour market and an increasingly knowledge-based society.  Attainment level is also related to individual well being.

How We Are Going

Scientific literacy was the major domain in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006, after being a minor domain in both PISA 2000 and 2003.

Three scientific competencies - identifying scientific issues, explaining phenomena scientifically, and using scientific evidence – and two scientific knowledge areas – knowledge of science and knowledge about science are reported.  Due to changes in the way scientific literacy has been assessed, no comparison can be made with the results for PISA 2000 and 2003.

Distribution of overall scientific literacy scores in PISA (2006) 

Overall in PISA 2006, New Zealand performed very strongly in scientific literacy, with only Finland among OECD countries achieving a significantly higher mean score.  Hong Kong-China also achieved a significantly higher mean score than New Zealand.  New Zealand’s performance was significantly above 23 of the other 29 OECD countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

New Zealand was one of the three best performing countries in terms of reaching the highest proficiency levels in scientific literacy, with 18% reaching Level 5 or above.  Fourteen percent of New Zealand 15 year-old students did not reach beyond the lowest level of scientific literacy (Level 1), a proportion which was significantly lower than the average across the OECD countries.

Percentage of New Zealand 15 year-old students reaching the PISA scientific literacy proficiency levels (2006)

New Zealand students performed very strongly on the identifying scientific issues and using scientific evidence scales, with only Finland achieving a significantly higher mean score on both competency scales.  On the explaining phenomena scientifically scale, New Zealand’s performance was relatively weaker, though still well above the OECD average, with five countries having significantly better mean scores than New Zealand.

In PISA 2006, there was no significant difference between the mean science scores of 15 year-old boys and girls.  Girls performed significantly better on average than boys on the identifying scientific issues scale, while boys were significantly better on average on the explaining phenomena scientifically scale.  No significant difference existed on the using scientific evidence scale.  The relative performance of New Zealand’s 15 year-old girls and boys generally mirrors that found in other OECD countries.

European/Pākehā 15 year-old students achieved significantly higher mean scientific literacy scores than Asian, Māori and Pasifika, while Asian performance was significantly above Māori and Pasifika.  A lower proportion of Māori and Pasifika students achieved at the highest levels of proficiency in reading, and these students were over-represented at the lower levels when compared with European/Pākehā and Asian students.

New Zealand 15 year-old students reported science as being less important than mathematics and English.  This finding mirrored that for all OECD countries.  However, a much higher percentage of New Zealand 15 year-old students reported spending four or more hours a week studying science and agreed that science will be useful to them in the future than the than the average percentage of their OECD counterparts.  They were also as likely to report an intention to pursue science in the future as their OECD peers.

Where To Find Out More

This indicator is closely linked to other national assessment programs for science, as well as achievement indicators for senior secondary school students, such as:

• Science achievement: primary schooling
• Science achievement: middle schooling
• Reading literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling
• Mathematics literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling

The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:

• Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis

References

Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education, (2001). Assessing Knowledge and Skills for Life - First results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000) - New Zealand Summary Report. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education (2004). Learning for Tomorrow's World - Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 - New Zealand Summary Report: Wellington, Ministry of Education.

OECD (2004). Learning for Tomorrow's World - First Results from PISA 2003. Paris: OECD.

OECD (2007). PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World: Vol 1.  Paris: OECD.

Sturrock, F. and May, S. (2002). PISA 2000: The New Zealand Context. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Telford, M. and Caygill, R. (2007). PISA 2006: How Ready Are Our 15-Year-Olds for Tomorrow’s World?  Wellington: Ministry of Education.