Global patterns in students’ views of science and interest in science

Ralf A.L.F. van Griethuijsen; Michiel W. van Eijck; Helen Haste; Perry J. den Brok; Nigel C. Skinner; Nasser Mansour; Ayse Savran Gencer; Saouma BouJaoude

doi:10.1007/s11165-014-9438-6

Global patterns in students’ views of science and interest in science

Ralf A.L.F. van Griethuijsen, Michiel W. van Eijck, Helen Haste, Perry J. den Brok, Nigel C. Skinner, Nasser Mansour, Ayse Savran Gencer, Saouma BouJaoude

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

659 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

International studies have shown that interest in science and technology among primary and secondary school students in Western European countries is low and seems to be decreasing. In many countries outside Europe, and especially in developing countries, interest in science and technology remains strong. As part of the large-scale European Union funded ‘Science Education for Diversity’ project, a questionnaire probing potential reasons for this difference was completed by students in the UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Lebanon, India and Malaysia. This questionnaire sought information about favourite courses, extracurricular activities and views on the nature of science. Over 9,000 students aged mainly between 10 and 14 years completed the questionnaire. Results revealed that students in countries outside Western Europe showed a greater interest in school science, in careers related to science and in extracurricular activities related to science than didWestern European students. Non-European studentswere also more likely to hold an empiricist viewof the nature of science and to believe that science can solve many problems faced by the world. Multilevel analysis revealed a strong correlation between interest in science and having such a view of the Nature of Science.

Original language	English
Article number	A005
Pages (from-to)	581-603
Number of pages	23
Journal	Research in Science Education
Volume	45
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-014-9438-6
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014.

Funding

The findings reported in this paper come from a questionnaire study that was part of a large research project named Science Education for Diversity which was funded by the seventh framework programme of the European Union and involved research in the UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Lebanon, India and Malaysia. We chose this diverse selection of countries because relatively few studies outside North America, Australasia and Europe have investigated the way in which students conceptualise the nature of science and whether this is linked to their interest in science. The studies that do exist have been carried out in countries with relatively high levels of economic development, e.g. Japan (Kawasaki ), South Korea (Kang et al. ) and Taiwan (Liu and Lederman ), and did not include less developed countries for which the PISA and ROSE studies revealed high levels of interest in science. This publication received funding from the European Union Science in Society Framework 7 Programme (FP7/2007/2013) under grant agreement 244717. We would like to thank the following people for collecting data and contributing to this research project: Roel Janssen, Huseyin Bag, Lindsay Hetherington, Alun Morgan, Keith Postlethwaite, Rupert Wegerif, Ng Swee Chin, Choy Siew Chee, Oo Pou San, Chin Fui Chung, Teh Lee Wah, Sugra Chunawala, Chitra Natarajan and Beena Choksi.

Funders	Funder number
European Union Science in Society Framework 7 Programme
FP7/2007/2013	244717
European Commission
Seventh Framework Programme

Keywords

Comparisons
Empiricism
Interest in science
International
Large-scale studies
Nature of science

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education

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10.1007/s11165-014-9438-6

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abstract = "International studies have shown that interest in science and technology among primary and secondary school students in Western European countries is low and seems to be decreasing. In many countries outside Europe, and especially in developing countries, interest in science and technology remains strong. As part of the large-scale European Union funded {\textquoteleft}Science Education for Diversity{\textquoteright} project, a questionnaire probing potential reasons for this difference was completed by students in the UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Lebanon, India and Malaysia. This questionnaire sought information about favourite courses, extracurricular activities and views on the nature of science. Over 9,000 students aged mainly between 10 and 14 years completed the questionnaire. Results revealed that students in countries outside Western Europe showed a greater interest in school science, in careers related to science and in extracurricular activities related to science than didWestern European students. Non-European studentswere also more likely to hold an empiricist viewof the nature of science and to believe that science can solve many problems faced by the world. Multilevel analysis revealed a strong correlation between interest in science and having such a view of the Nature of Science.",

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Global patterns in students’ views of science and interest in science

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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