PsychologicalReports, 1991, 68, 63-70. O Psychological Reports 1991
NOTE O N ADOLESCENTS' TIME-USE AND SCIENTIFIC LITERACY ' ARTHUR J. REYNOLDS Northern Illinois University Summary.-This study investigated the relative influence of self-reported, out-of-school experiences on 13-yt-olds' scientific literacy, including the often studied variables of homework time and television time. Results, based on a national probability sample of 3,116 students, indicated that time spent doing homework, reading, and viewing television programs with an educational focus had significant and positive independent influences on scientific literacy net of home environment and students' background factors. Viewing television programs that emphasized entertainment negatively contributed to scientific literacy. The number of hours of television viewed was unrelated to literacy. Factors associated with the transition to adolescence, dating, and peer relations, were negatively related to scientific literacy. Findings were discussed in regard to improving students' performances in science.
Although scientific literacy has become increasingly important in our advancing technological world, American students continue to show poor performance on indicators of achievement in science. U.S. 13-yt-old students, for example, scored ninth among 12 countries and Canadian provinces on U.S.-made tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Lapointe, Mead, & Phillips, 1989), and to this day continue to decline in knowledge of science (Jones, 1988-1989). Often cited among the causes of this dismal performance are poor schools, inadequately trained teachers, outdated curricula, and students' poor use of time-too much time watching television and not enough time on homework. However, often deficiencies of schools are given greater attention than students' use of time, which is unfortunate since the typical student spends the majority (about 82%) of his waking time each year outside of school (based on a 6-hr. school day over a school year of 180 days). Two of the most studied areas of students' use of time are homework and television. Time spent on homework has generally shown a significant positive relationship with cognitive achievement, including achievement in science, at all grades (Paschal, Weinstein, & Walberg, 1984). These results confirm the importance of effort on school tasks. Studies of television viewing have shown weaker results, usually a small negative relationship with indicators of achievement (Wdharns, Haertel, Haertel, & Walberg, 1982),
'The preparation of this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant MDR 8550085. Its content is attributable to the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Address correspondence to Arthur J. Reynolds, Social Science Research Institute, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60 115.
64
A. J. REYNOLDS
often too small to be educationally significant. These results have been interpreted to mean that, because adolescents spend much more time watching television than doing homework, television time displaces time spent on homework (Hornik, 198 1). However, studies of television viewing rarely consider the educational quality of the programs viewed. The over-all negative relationship frequently reported may mask the very different effects of viewing programs whose goal is acquisition of knowledge about the social and natural world (e.g., science or news programs), which would be expected to relate positively to intellectual outcomes such as scientific literacy, and viewing programs whose content is not so identifiable with the acquisition of intellectual knowledge (weekly entertainment series), which would be expected to relate less positively or negatively to scientific literacy. Further, to estimate the effect of television viewing, homework, or any factor, the relative contributions of many other experiences that shape achievement behaviors would have to be considered as well, such as time spent with peers, time spent working for pay, and time spent alone (e g . , reading). These characteristics have been rarely, if ever, investigated together in previous studies. This study explored the relationship between indicators of out-of-school use of time and scientific literacy for a national sample of eighth-graders. This sample was selected because early adolescence is a developmental period wherein many important habits are formed that will carry over to later periods. Three hypotheses were tested in predicting scientific literacy. (1) The amount of homework completed outside of school is positively related to scientific literacy. (2) The kind of programs watched is more predictive of scientific literacy than the quantity of viewing above and beyond that of other factors (i.e., students' background attributes). Viewing programs with an emphasis on intellectual development or the acquisition of knowledge will be positively associated with literacy; viewing programs not designed for the acquisition of knowledge but for entertainment will be negatively related to literacy. (3) Additional out-of-school activities will be significantly related to scientific literacy, including time spent reading (positive) and time spent with peers (negative). -
Sample and Measuves Data came from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, a multiplecohort panel study tracing adolescents' development in science and mathematics, including 3,116 seventh graders in 52 schools. As part of the study, this national probability sample completed a cognitive achievement battery on scientific literacy in the fall of eighth-grade (1988, the second year of the study). This 60-item, multiple-choice test was developed from the item bank
ADOLESCENTS' TIME-USE, SCIENTIFIC LITERACY
65
of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEF', 1986) and assessed three domains of scientific literacy at three levels of cognitive development: knowledge of science (e.g., "Can you see a single atom with the unaided eye?"), application/utilization of science knowledge (e.g., "Recently, some forests were cleared in the Himalayan Mountains. What could have happened as a result of this clearing?"), and integration of science (e.g., "If a stone is a diamond, it can scratch glass. Stone B can scratch glass. Which of the following statements is true of stone B?"). The test, administered in three forms, was validated by item-response theory and scaled to a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 [reliability = .89; see Miller, Suchner, Hoffer, and Brown (1990) for further information on test characteristics, design, and sample selection]. Table 1 below displays the predictors of scientific literacy used in the analysis. With the exception of home environment (reported by parents), variables were self-reported from survey instruments administered in the fall terms of seventh- and eighth-grades. To reduce ambiguity in assessing the direction of influence, the predictors were measured prior to scientific literacy (the exception being measures of quality of television programs which were measured at the same time). Time-use variables were taken from the item "In a typical week, how many hours do you spend: [fill-in]" and included doing homework, watching television, listening to music, being with friends, playing sports, and reading outside of school. The quality of programs viewed was defined as the first two principal components of nine self-reported items on television program view~ng (factor loadings> .50).' These two interpretable indexes explained 45% of the total variance in items using varimax rotation as implemented by SPSS* (1988). The educational index (EDUCindex) recorded how many of three programs students watched sometimes or often (news programs, the NOVA science program on public television, and National Geographic specials). The entertainment index (ENTRindex) recorded how many of three programs students watched (Nickelodeon, religious programs, and Square One). The former index was expected to be positively related to literacy, the latter index negatively re-
'Names of variables in the data set are as follows. Home environment = MOTHED and FATHED (1 =
NOTE O N ADOLESCENTS' TIME-USE AND SCIENTIFIC LITERACY ' ARTHUR J. REYNOLDS Northern Illinois University Summary.-This study investigated the relative influence of self-reported, out-of-school experiences on 13-yt-olds' scientific literacy, including the often studied variables of homework time and television time. Results, based on a national probability sample of 3,116 students, indicated that time spent doing homework, reading, and viewing television programs with an educational focus had significant and positive independent influences on scientific literacy net of home environment and students' background factors. Viewing television programs that emphasized entertainment negatively contributed to scientific literacy. The number of hours of television viewed was unrelated to literacy. Factors associated with the transition to adolescence, dating, and peer relations, were negatively related to scientific literacy. Findings were discussed in regard to improving students' performances in science.
Although scientific literacy has become increasingly important in our advancing technological world, American students continue to show poor performance on indicators of achievement in science. U.S. 13-yt-old students, for example, scored ninth among 12 countries and Canadian provinces on U.S.-made tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Lapointe, Mead, & Phillips, 1989), and to this day continue to decline in knowledge of science (Jones, 1988-1989). Often cited among the causes of this dismal performance are poor schools, inadequately trained teachers, outdated curricula, and students' poor use of time-too much time watching television and not enough time on homework. However, often deficiencies of schools are given greater attention than students' use of time, which is unfortunate since the typical student spends the majority (about 82%) of his waking time each year outside of school (based on a 6-hr. school day over a school year of 180 days). Two of the most studied areas of students' use of time are homework and television. Time spent on homework has generally shown a significant positive relationship with cognitive achievement, including achievement in science, at all grades (Paschal, Weinstein, & Walberg, 1984). These results confirm the importance of effort on school tasks. Studies of television viewing have shown weaker results, usually a small negative relationship with indicators of achievement (Wdharns, Haertel, Haertel, & Walberg, 1982),
'The preparation of this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant MDR 8550085. Its content is attributable to the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Address correspondence to Arthur J. Reynolds, Social Science Research Institute, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60 115.
64
A. J. REYNOLDS
often too small to be educationally significant. These results have been interpreted to mean that, because adolescents spend much more time watching television than doing homework, television time displaces time spent on homework (Hornik, 198 1). However, studies of television viewing rarely consider the educational quality of the programs viewed. The over-all negative relationship frequently reported may mask the very different effects of viewing programs whose goal is acquisition of knowledge about the social and natural world (e.g., science or news programs), which would be expected to relate positively to intellectual outcomes such as scientific literacy, and viewing programs whose content is not so identifiable with the acquisition of intellectual knowledge (weekly entertainment series), which would be expected to relate less positively or negatively to scientific literacy. Further, to estimate the effect of television viewing, homework, or any factor, the relative contributions of many other experiences that shape achievement behaviors would have to be considered as well, such as time spent with peers, time spent working for pay, and time spent alone (e g . , reading). These characteristics have been rarely, if ever, investigated together in previous studies. This study explored the relationship between indicators of out-of-school use of time and scientific literacy for a national sample of eighth-graders. This sample was selected because early adolescence is a developmental period wherein many important habits are formed that will carry over to later periods. Three hypotheses were tested in predicting scientific literacy. (1) The amount of homework completed outside of school is positively related to scientific literacy. (2) The kind of programs watched is more predictive of scientific literacy than the quantity of viewing above and beyond that of other factors (i.e., students' background attributes). Viewing programs with an emphasis on intellectual development or the acquisition of knowledge will be positively associated with literacy; viewing programs not designed for the acquisition of knowledge but for entertainment will be negatively related to literacy. (3) Additional out-of-school activities will be significantly related to scientific literacy, including time spent reading (positive) and time spent with peers (negative). -
Sample and Measuves Data came from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, a multiplecohort panel study tracing adolescents' development in science and mathematics, including 3,116 seventh graders in 52 schools. As part of the study, this national probability sample completed a cognitive achievement battery on scientific literacy in the fall of eighth-grade (1988, the second year of the study). This 60-item, multiple-choice test was developed from the item bank
ADOLESCENTS' TIME-USE, SCIENTIFIC LITERACY
65
of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEF', 1986) and assessed three domains of scientific literacy at three levels of cognitive development: knowledge of science (e.g., "Can you see a single atom with the unaided eye?"), application/utilization of science knowledge (e.g., "Recently, some forests were cleared in the Himalayan Mountains. What could have happened as a result of this clearing?"), and integration of science (e.g., "If a stone is a diamond, it can scratch glass. Stone B can scratch glass. Which of the following statements is true of stone B?"). The test, administered in three forms, was validated by item-response theory and scaled to a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 [reliability = .89; see Miller, Suchner, Hoffer, and Brown (1990) for further information on test characteristics, design, and sample selection]. Table 1 below displays the predictors of scientific literacy used in the analysis. With the exception of home environment (reported by parents), variables were self-reported from survey instruments administered in the fall terms of seventh- and eighth-grades. To reduce ambiguity in assessing the direction of influence, the predictors were measured prior to scientific literacy (the exception being measures of quality of television programs which were measured at the same time). Time-use variables were taken from the item "In a typical week, how many hours do you spend: [fill-in]" and included doing homework, watching television, listening to music, being with friends, playing sports, and reading outside of school. The quality of programs viewed was defined as the first two principal components of nine self-reported items on television program view~ng (factor loadings> .50).' These two interpretable indexes explained 45% of the total variance in items using varimax rotation as implemented by SPSS* (1988). The educational index (EDUCindex) recorded how many of three programs students watched sometimes or often (news programs, the NOVA science program on public television, and National Geographic specials). The entertainment index (ENTRindex) recorded how many of three programs students watched (Nickelodeon, religious programs, and Square One). The former index was expected to be positively related to literacy, the latter index negatively re-
'Names of variables in the data set are as follows. Home environment = MOTHED and FATHED (1 =
