Teodora Kolarova 1)
1) Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”
Isa Hadjiali
2 ) Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/nat2023-5-6.05
Absract. The aim of this study was to assess how and in what extent main aspects of the scientific literacy were represented in Bulgarian science education standards for the junior high school. A content analysis was used as an appropriate method of this particular research. The analysis focused on four dimensions of the scientific literacy – cognitive-epistemic, functional, social and metacognitive. These dimensions were assessed in two national education documents – National education standards (SOS) for general education preparation (“The Human and the nature” 5th – 6th grade and “Biology and health education” 7th grade) and National education standards (NOS) for civic, health, environmental and intercultural education. The results of the study showed that both documents highlighted the cognitive aspect of scientific literacy (factual and conceptual knowledge of the nature) followed by the functional dimension (skills for scientific inquiry). But at the same time, other important aspects of the scientific literacy such as epistemic knowledge (e.g., knowledge of the nature of science) and metacognitive dimension (e.g., metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive skills) were neglected by these documents.
Keywords: National education standards, content analysis, scientific literacy
