This document summarizes a study that examined secondary school students' perceptions of science and its importance in life. Researchers conducted online surveys and interviews with 51 students from two schools in England. The students identified four main categories related to the usefulness of science in life: health, living, career, and technology. The interviews found that girls and inner city students discussed health-related issues more. While some students' answers could be analyzed using ethical frameworks, most responses were too short. Teachers discussed how science enriches lives but did not mention issues teaching controversial topics like evolution. The researchers concluded that a larger study is needed to better understand students' and teachers' perspectives on these issues.
1. School of Education
Secondary Science Students’
Ideas about Science and Life
Maarten Tas (mt317@le.ac.uk)
Hugh Busher (hugh.busher@le.ac.uk)
School of Education, University of Leicester, UK
www.le.ac.uk ECER 2014
2. Acknowledgement of funding:
• We are grateful to the College of Social
Sciences, University of Leicester, for
making available to us a small amount of
funding during the year 2010-2011
without which this project would not
have been possible.
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4. Background
Citizenship Curriculum 11-14 - England
(QCA, 2007:30)
• It advises controversial issues to ‘be
handled so that pupils develop skills in
discussing and debating citizenship issues
and considering points of view that are
not necessarily their own’
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5. Background
Science Curriculum 14-16 - England
• Students need to develop arguments,
using scientific, technical and
mathematical language
• Students need to understand how and
why decisions about science and
technology affect social, economic and
environmental issues.
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6. Background
Perception of Identities in Science
Education (POISED)
• Students’ and teachers’ views of
schooling, science education and science
and society
• Two Secondary schools in the Midlands of
England in 2010–2011 (InnerCity &
Smalltown)
• 33 female and 18 male 14-16 year old
students. ECER 2014
7. Research Questions
• How do students in secondary schools
perceive the importance of science in life
outside school?
• The similarities and differences between
the perceptions and attitudes between
boys and girls?
• The similarities and differences between
an InnerCity and Smalltown school?
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8. Theoretical Framework
• Accessing students’ perspectives on
education was encouraged in England by
a former government (DCSF, 2008)
• It fosters student engagement in learning
and helps to develop a more inclusive
school environment (Rudduck and Flutter,
2004).
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9. Theoretical Framework
• ROSE (Schreiner and Sjøberg, 2007):
– the more developed the society the more
negative was the response to a questionnaire
item ‘I like school science better than most
subjects’
– Few students showed aspirations to become
scientists or technologists with girls showing
particularly low interest.
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10. Theoretical Framework
• Osborne et al. (2003):
– a decline in students’ views of the importance
of science from age 11 years onwards
– school science had the reputation of being dull,
difficult, not in touch with students’ aspirations
and irrelevant to society as a whole.
• Barmby et al. (2008):
– this decline was more pronounced for female
students.
• Reid and Skryabina (2002):
– both female and male students prefer practical
activities.
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11. Theoretical Framework
• Reiss (2011):school science fails to enable
most students to see the world from a
scientific perspective.
• To construct a global image of the world,
‘world view’ (Aerts et al., 1994),
students need to understand as many
elements of their experience as possible.
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12. Theoretical Framework
• In a study of 16-18 year Biology students
engaged in ethical issues Reis (2008)
identified four possible frameworks to fit
in their responses:
• rights and duties;
• utilitarianism (ideas about maximizing happiness
and reducing suffering);
• autonomy (determining moral responsibility and
accountability);
• and virtue ethics (the virtues that somebody
represents for evaluating ethical behaviour).
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13. Methodology and Methods
• Social Interactivist ontology (Blumer,
1969; Strauss, 1993)
• Triangulated mixed methods approach to
collect data and construct the internal
validity
• The instruments were piloted in one of
the schools in the previous academic year
(2009/2010).
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14. Methodology and Methods
• Online surveys:
– (14 boys and 26 girls in Smalltown, 7 girls and
4 boys in InnerCity)
Largely qualitative, open-ended questions:
‘How is science useful in your life?’
‘How has science changed your life at home?’
‘What do you think are controversial issues in
science?’
‘How does science affect your personal
beliefs?’
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15. Methodology and Methods
• Semi-structured interview in pairs:
– (3 boys and 3 girls in Smalltown, 7 girls and 3
boys in InnerCity)
The two questions of the interview that gave
most of the information for this particular
study were:
‘How do you see Science outside the school?’
(Probe – How is Science useful in your life?)
‘What excites you most about Science outside
school?
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16. Methodology and Methods
• The qualitative data was sorted
thematically to discover students’
preferred views using a form of grounded
theory
• The two researchers separately developed
an initial analysis of the qualitative
questionnaire data before comparing and
combining their ideas to create a grid for
analysing all the students’ data.
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17. Results
• Students identified four main categories
related to science and life:
– Health
– Living
– Career (all InnerCity students – their own career)
– Technology (boys mentioned gaming)
– Environment
• Only the female students from the InnerCity
school mentioned health related issues,
either their own or family members’ or
health in general. ECER 2014
18. Results
• As controversial issues in science:
– battery farming; genetic engineering;
abortion; cloning; global warming; ‘the
environment’ or ethical issues in general.
• Personal beliefs:
- ‘science contradicts beliefs’; ‘science has
some impact’; ‘science has no impact on
beliefs’
- The evolution theory and Big Bang theory
were only mentioned twice.
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19. • Personal beliefs:
Results
– The girls in the InnerCity schools would write
longer sentences, some explaining their ideas
– Only 6/14 boys from the Smalltown school
responded to this question with very brief
replies.
• Some answers could be coded using the
frameworks (rights & duties; utilitarianism;
autonomy; virtue ethics) described by Reiss
(2008). However, most of the answers were
too short to use this effectively.
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20. Results
Teacher responses:
“…they are getting it because there is this wider society
and the relevance outside of these four walls” (CWMST)
“…and like the technical advances has meant that it’s a
better lifestyle for us and inevitably that’s what it boils
down to” (NKFIC).
“... down to the nitty-gritty, around the home. Wiring a
plug. Fixing this, you know, I think science produces great
thinkers” (CKMIC).
“What scientists do is to enrich lives, treat diseases,
make make-up better (laughter) and clothes that are
durable and last longer, and sustain our population”
(EWFST).
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21. Teacher responses:
Results
“It’s teaching science in a different way ... changing the
curriculum to fit … to the present today society” (MAMST)
“we’ve swung quite heavily away from the traditional to the
quite modern contextual thinking” (KWFST)
…in the media, and stuff like that…when you need fertility
treatment you need to know!... there’s just a million
examples of where it is relevant in your life” (EWFST)
“Space exploration has really obvious landmark events. It
launches. It gets there…because this is real. This is science
live” (DBMST)
“…I wanted to make a difference and especially with
environmental science” (CWMST).
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22. Results
Teacher responses:
“Doing science for me is proving that your idea is backed
up with evidence. Science is not something that should
be told to them. It’s something that you can prove to
them” (DBMST).
“...that idea of the inquisitive side of science isn’t it
and the idea that you can experiment yourself to come
to a conclusion or draw a conclusion so to speak” (NKFIC).
“I’d like to see that all students have that sort of
understanding about how science works and the
applications of it” (NKFIC).
The teachers didn’t mention issues with teaching the Big
Bang theory or the Evolution theory.
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23. Conclusion and discussion
• The four main categories related to science
and life were health; living; career;
technology and environment
• The girls (in particular InnerCity) wrote
longer sentences and explained more in the
interviews
• Some of the students’ answers were not
well explained or there was no
understanding of the concept ‘Scientific
Theory’.
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24. Conclusion and discussion
• Teachers talked about the same
categories but not about issues with
teaching controversial issues
• A larger study is necessary where
teachers and students are prompted more
to talk about these issues and their
understanding.
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25. References
• Aerts, D., Apostel, L., De Moor, B., Hellemans, S., Maex, E., Van Belle, H. and Van der Veken, J.(1994) World
Views: From Fragmentation to Integration (Brussels, VUB Press). Available at:
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/clea/reports/worldviewsbook.html
• Barmby, P., Kind, P.M. and Jones, K. (2008) Examining changing attitudes in secondary school science.
International Journal of Science Education, 30 (8) 1075-1093
• Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.DCSF
(2008) Working Together: Listening to the voices of children and young people, London: DCSF
(http://publications.education.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00410-2008.pdf)
• Darby, L. (2005) Science students’ perceptions of engaging pedagogy, Research in Science Education, 35, 425-445
• Osborne, J., Simon, S. and Collins, S. (2003) Attitudes towards science: a review of the literature and its
implications, International Journal of Science Education, 25 (9) 1049-1079
• Reid, N. and Skryabina, E.A. (2002) Attitudes towards physics, International Journal in Science Education, 20(1),
67-81
• Reiss, M. (2008) The use of ethical frameworks by students following a new science course for 16-18 year-olds.
Science & Education, 17, 889-902
• Reiss, M. (2011) How should creationism and intelligent design be dealt with in the classroom? Journal of
Philosophy of Education, 45(3), 339-415
• Rudduck, J. & Flutter, J. (2004) How to improve your school: Giving pupils a voice, London: Continuum Books.
• Schreiner, C. and Sjøberg, S. (2007) Science education and youth’s identity construction – two incompatible
projects? In D. Corrigan, J. Dillon and R. Gunstone (eds), The Re-emergence of Values in the Science Curriculum,
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers
• Strauss A.L. (1993) Continual permutations of actions. Hawthorne, New York: Aldine de Gruyter
• QCA (2007) Citizenship. Programme of study for key stage 3 and attainment target. Available at:
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/citizenship%202007%20programme%20of%20study%20for%20key%20st
age%203.pdf
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