The Examination of the Relationship between Scientific Literacy and Some Cognitively Based Individual Differences in Terms of Gender

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine whether the structural model that Sahin and Ates (2020) put forward about the relationship among students' scientific literacy levels, logical thinking ability, cognitive styles, mental capacity, and mental rotation ability differ in terms of gender. A causal-comparative model approach was used in this study. The sample of the research was 823 seventh-grade students in the central districts of Ankara. This sample was created using the random stratified sampling method. In the study, it is seen that 64% of the variance in the scientific literacy scores of the females and 48% of the variance in the scientific literacy scores of the males are explained by the cognitively based variables. Comparing male and female students in the data analyses, the predictive effect of the mental rotation ability of female students on the logical thinking ability was not significant. In male students, when only the direct effects were examined, the effect of cognitive styles on scientific literacy was not significant. Based on the results of the study, it is thought that examining the interactions among the activities related to learning, teaching, and assessment process used in science classes, and cognitive styles will play an important role in the process of removing inequalities of opportunity arising from possible gender-cognitive style interaction in the process of raising scientifically literate individuals.