El conocimiento epistémico en la evaluación de la competencia científica en PISA 2015

Abstract

[eng] Science education research has developed a fruitful line on epistemology, sociology and the history of science contents (in short, nature of scientific knowledge or nature of science), because these contents are currently considered an essential component of scientific and technological literacy for average citizens. As a novelty, under the label of epistemic knowledge, PISA 2015 asks for students' opinions about the nature and validity of scientific knowledge, which constitutes the aim of this study. Three basic beliefs make up the theoretical framework of PISA 2015 for the epistemic knowledge: the recognition that scientific knowledge changes, the appreciation that empirical evidence is the basis of knowledge and the assessment of critical thinking as a tool to validate ideas and knowledge. From this framework, PISA 2015 constructs several indices to characterize epistemic knowledge and analyze students' beliefs. Results show that most students agree that scientific knowledge changes and empirical evidence is very important to validate knowledge. The most interesting result shows that, in all countries, the increase in the index of epistemic knowledge is positively and systematically associated with the increase of PISA science achievement average score. In addition, teacher-led instruction, good material equipment and personnel in science department, research-based instruction and adaptive instruction are positively related to stronger beliefs of epistemic knowledge, whereas teacher qualification seems to have no influence. Finally, the main findings of the study, the methodological limitations of the six epistemic phrases in the student questionnaire, and the impact of research-based teaching are discussed.