Educational environment and college students: an investigation of scientific literacy of early childhood education students in two Chinese normal universities

Scientific literacy was seen as an important component of national quality, also as the foundation of social civilization. This study investigated the scientific literacy (SL) of early childhood education students (ECEs) in two Chinese normal universities. Altogether 177 ECEs were surveyed and randomized semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 ECEs. The results revealed that ECEs demonstrated unbalanced and uneven scientific knowledge reserves. While they possessed positive attitudes in improving the SL, there was minimal progress in terms of taking action. Clearly, school, family and society, the so called educational environment, had insufficient support for ECEs' SL development.