Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
ShareThis
Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Measuring science or religion? A measurement analysis of the National Science Foundation sponsored science literacy scale 2006–2010

View through CrossRef
High scientific literacy is widely considered a public good. Methods of assessing public scientific knowledge or literacy are equally important. In an effort to measure lay scientific literacy in the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) science literacy scale has been a part of the last three waves of the General Social Survey. However, there has been debate over the validity of some survey items as indicators of science knowledge. While many researchers treat the NSF science scale as measuring a single dimension, previous work (Bann and Schwerin, 2004; Miller, 1998, 2004) suggests a bidimensional structure. This paper hypothesizes and tests a new measurement model for the NSF science knowledge scale and finds that two items about evolution and the big bang are more measures of a religious belief dimension termed “Young Earth Worldview” than they are measures of scientific knowledge. Results are replicated in seven samples.
Title: Measuring science or religion? A measurement analysis of the National Science Foundation sponsored science literacy scale 2006–2010
Description:
High scientific literacy is widely considered a public good.
Methods of assessing public scientific knowledge or literacy are equally important.
In an effort to measure lay scientific literacy in the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) science literacy scale has been a part of the last three waves of the General Social Survey.
However, there has been debate over the validity of some survey items as indicators of science knowledge.
While many researchers treat the NSF science scale as measuring a single dimension, previous work (Bann and Schwerin, 2004; Miller, 1998, 2004) suggests a bidimensional structure.
This paper hypothesizes and tests a new measurement model for the NSF science knowledge scale and finds that two items about evolution and the big bang are more measures of a religious belief dimension termed “Young Earth Worldview” than they are measures of scientific knowledge.
Results are replicated in seven samples.

Related Results

Measurement Invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale Across 26 Countries
Measurement Invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale Across 26 Countries
The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) is a commonly used life satisfaction scale. Cross-cultural researchers use SWLS to compare mean scores of life satisfaction across countries...
Analysis of the problem of legal literacy of technical university students
Analysis of the problem of legal literacy of technical university students
Introduction. The socio-economic and political processes taking place in modern Russia pose new challenges to the student youth, as the most active subject of these processes. Ten ...
Financial literacy of students of technical universities: analysis of opinions and development prospects
Financial literacy of students of technical universities: analysis of opinions and development prospects
Introduction. The development of students' ability to make informed and responsible decisions in the field of personal finance is an urgent problem. Young people must have the appr...
Sensing religion, observing religion, reconstructing religion: Contingency and pluralization in post-Westphalian context
Sensing religion, observing religion, reconstructing religion: Contingency and pluralization in post-Westphalian context
The article argues that what is performed and understood as religion in global society has in the course of the modern centuries come to be increasingly dominated by the idea that ...
Observation of induced shear acoustic phonons by Brillouin scattering
Observation of induced shear acoustic phonons by Brillouin scattering
The Brillouin scattering measurement is an efficient nondestructive and noncontact method which enables the simultaneous measurement of longitudinal and shear wave velocities at hy...
Toward Critical Intercultural Literacy Enhancement of University Students in China From the Perspective of English as a Lingua Franca
Toward Critical Intercultural Literacy Enhancement of University Students in China From the Perspective of English as a Lingua Franca
The concept of intercultural communication has become a focus in English language teaching (ELT) against the backdrop of globalization, as English is now used as a lingua franca (E...
The lived religion approach in the sociology of religion and its implications for secular feminist analyses of religion
The lived religion approach in the sociology of religion and its implications for secular feminist analyses of religion
The sociological ‘lived religion’ approach focuses on the experiences of religious individuals in everyday life, whilst also considering the institutional aspects of religion that ...

Back to Top