Characteristics Of Chemistry Thinking,attitudes Towards Chemistry, And Decision-making On Socio-chemical Issues Of Students Who Select Chemistry Subject In The CEE

The reform of College Entrance Examination(CEE)is the key of curriculum reform.In 2014,Zhejiang Province,as one of the pilot provinces,unifying CEE and Academic Proficiency Test,first launched the "3 from 7" Mode.That is to say,high school students can select three subjects from physics,chemistry,biology,politics,history,geography,and technology when they take part in the CEE.In this context,chemistry changes from compulsory subject for science students to elective subject for all students.Accordingly its position varied in the middle school teaching.Scientific literacy encompasses understanding scientific knowledge,holding positive attitude toward science,and making informed decision on daily life contexts.Basing on the interviews of the factors that students considered when they choose subject in the CEE,the research probes into the characteristics of chemistry thinking,attitude toward chemistry,and the decision-making on socio-chemical issues,which include present situations of above three aspects and interaction mechanism among them.It will provide empirical data to chemisty teaching of high school,contribute to the reform of basic education curriculum evaluation,and help to improve the scientific literacy of students who select chemisty subject.Firstly,based on the relevant literature and the characteristics of chemistry subject,the conceptual frameworks of chemistry thinking,attitude towards chemistry and decision-making on socio-chemical issues are constructed.The I-CVI content validities are tested.According to the frameworks,Thinking of Chemistry Subject Test(TCST),Attitude toward Chemistry Subject Scale(ACSS),and Decision-making on Socio-chemical Issues Questionnaire(DMSCIQ)are developed.The reliability and validity of the three tools are verified by pilot studies.The samples are Senior Two students from four districts in Zhejiang Province,in which 3 schools of different levels are randomly selected.The total of samples is 2000,and all of them have selected chemistry subject.Making use of TCST,ACSS and DMSCIQ,chemistry thinking,attitude towards chemistry and decision-making on socio-chemical issues are measured.Data analyses mainly use SPSS22.0 software.Making use of descriptive statistics method,the overall performance of students’ chemistry thinking,attitude towards chemistry,and decision-making are analyzed.Independent-sample T test,one-way ANOVA and non-parametric test are used to explore the influences of gender,type of school and students’ prior chemical achievement on the three variables.Moderating effects are tested by the two-way ANOVA and other methods.All kinds of regression analysis and mediating effect analysis are used to explore the relationships and mechanisms among three of them.The results indicate that:Students’ chemistry thinking is not ideal,it is near to the pass level.The "macro and micro" dimension is the best,and the "qualitative and quantitative" dimension is the weakest.Boys are stronger than girls when they solve higher level tasks,and this relationship is not affected by the type of school and students’ prior chemical achievement.However,the latter two variables have positive effects on chemistry thinking.Students’ attitude towards chemistry is good,and they extremely agree with the value of chemistry,but their interest in chemisty is unsatisfied.Girls’ understanding of value and nature of chemistry are better than that of boys,but the interest in chemistry is just the opposite.Attitude towards chemistry is not proportional to the type of school and the prior chemical achievement,and the students of high level and middle level have little difference.Students’ decision-making on socio-chemical issues is moderate,the dimension of "concern and integration" is the strongest,and the dimension of "balance and decision" is the weakest.Decision-making of girls is stronger than that of boys,and it is moderated by the type of school.And the type of school affects students’ decision-making,but the students’ prior chemistry achievement does not.In the mechanism,students’ attitude towards chemistry can positively predict both chemistry thinking and decision-making.And chemistry thinking can not only positively predict decision-making directly,but also can positively predict decision-making indirectly,and attitude towards chemistry is the mediator variable of them.Based on the above results,the study puts forward some suggestions,such as strengthening the learning of basic knowledge and paying attention to chemical experiments and so on.And it also looks forward to the future research,including the context of decision-making on sociochemical issues,the statistical methods,and empirical research.