Naval, Christa Jesusa Saniatan

Abstract:The definitive goal of scientific literacy is to produce scientifically responsible citizens, as researchers or otherwise as regular members of society. Students should participate in a system of education that equips them to make knowledgeable decisions. This study focused on determining the nature of science and scientific inquiry literacy of first-year college students at the University of Northern Philippines during the school year 2020-2021. This utilized the descriptive correlational research design in determining the students’ scientific literacy by component assessment of nature-of-science and scientific inquiry and its relationship to students’ profile and perception in learning science. The majority of the respondents are female, graduated from a public national high school, took the Academic track - Humanities and Social Sciences strand in senior high school and have a general weighted average from 80 through 84. Results showed that the students possessed a low level of scientific literacy by a component of nature-of-science and scientific inquiry despite the high level of perception in learning science. A significant negative relationship between students’ gender and level of scientific interest indicating that females performed better than males is also revealed. Likewise, senior high school strands and students’ scientific literacy also showed a significant negative correlation, showing that non-STEM graduates tend to have higher scientific literacy than STEM students. This negates the expectations of the academe and society on students pursuing science-related courses to be more scientifically knowledgeable. On the other hand, a significant correlation between the general weighted average and scientific literacy was observed, implying that higher academic performance influences scientific literacy.

Keywords:nature-of-science, scientific inquiry, science perception, scientific literacy