The Potential of RICOSRE to Enhance University Students’ Science Literacy in Biology

Twenty-first-century skills encompass science literacy, competencies, and character qualities. Science literacy is one of the basic literacy skills that play a significant role in modern society, where people have to deal with advanced science and technology. Science literacy can be promoted in university students through learning. RICOSRE is a learning model that can be used to develop university students' science literacy. The current study aimed to investigate the potential of RICOSRE to enhance university students' science literacy through a comprehensive study of 1) the improvement of the students' science literacy during the process of learning using RICOSRE, and 2) the effect of RICOSRE on the students' science literacy. A concurrent embedded mixed methods design was employed in this study. The students' science literacy was assessed using an essay test on Protist and a science literacy rubric. The qualitative data analysis was performed descriptively based on the results of the pretest, mid-test, and post-test, while the quantitative data analysis was carried out using the Wilcoxon's non-parametric test in a one group pretest-post-test design. The results of the study showed that 1) the students' score improved by 21.37% from the pretest to the mid-test and 13.27% from the mid-test to the post-test; 2) RICOSRE had an effect on the students' science literacy with a significance level of 0.000 < 0.05. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that RICOSRE learning model can be applied to empower university students' science literacy.