Even though Thailand is not a member country of the OECD, it engaged in PISA in the
hope that it would help develop the economy, along with other OECD member countries. PISA
provides an indicator for the development of the economy based on science education. The
notion of developing quality citizens through science learning related to everyday life, was
increasingly driven by the Thai government who was interested to qualify for membership of
the OECD. In order to do so, Thailand had to show that its people held scientific literacy at a
similar level to that of OECD members. The OECD framework suggests that science should
be taught starting from science about the earth and environment, science in life and health, and
science in technology. This approach probably intends that science will be related to students’
everyday life (The Manager, 2002). To drive increased performance in PISA and to enhance
scientific literacy, IPST (2008) published articles about the significance of public understanding
of science on its website. This stated that if all Thai people are scientifically literate, they
will gain in terms of their quality of life and Thai society as a whole will benefit. Science literacy
is described by IPST as process of surviving in everyday life, so that people can understand
scientific information and issues related to science for their lives and society. According
to IPST, people who possess scientific literacy are be able to: (1) perceive questions and problems
that could be verified through scientific method; (2) identify evidences or data for inquiring;
(3) give reasonable explanation related to empirical data or evidences; (4) communicate
or explain conclusion of issues related to science to others; and (5) understand the principle
and scientific concepts (IPST, 2002).