How do learners in different cultures relate to science and technology?
Results and perspectives from the project ROSE (the Relevance of Science Education)
Svein SJØBERG
Professor in Science Education, University of Oslo,
NORWAY
Past Chair, International Organisation for Science and Technology Education
Email: svein.sjoberg@ils.uio.no
and
Camilla SCHREINER
University of Oslo, NORWAY
Contents
Introduction ROSE in brief Some illustrative data Similariies between countries Most youth appreciate S&T in society A job in S&T? Youth's orientations towards S&T - linked to the level of development in a country References
Introduction1The position of science and technology (S&T) in a society changes through time and from one society to another. In developing countries, many young people would like to opt for a career in S&T, while many rich highly developed countries notice declining recruitment of students to science and technology studies. "Europe needs more scientists!" is the title of the final report from a large EU project addressing the condition of science and technology in EU, with special attention to the number of people entering S&T educations and careers (EU, 2004). The title of the report reveals the point: The falling recruitment to most S&T educations is seen as a large problem in most European countries. The same tendencies are noted in the US (NSB, 2004) and in most other OECD-countries.
There are large and interesting differences between the countries, both in respect of number of students, which subjects with the weakest recruitment, how large the recruitment problem is perceived to be, etc. Especially the "hard" S&T-subjects, such as technology, engineering, physics and to some extent chemistry are stricken. In addition, the gender differences vary from one country to another. In most countries, although with large variations, the boys outnumber the girls in physics and engineering studies, while the gender balance is shifted towards the girls in studies like medicine, veterinary medicine, environmental science and biology.
The lack of relevance of the S&T curriculum is seen as one of the greatest barriers for good learning and as the reason for young peoples' low interest in the school subject and lack of motivation for pursuing the subject in their higher education. ROSE, The Relevance of Science Education, is an international comparative project meant to shed light on affective factors of importance to the learning of science and technology. The target population is students towards the end of secondary school (age 15). The research instrument is a questionnaire mostly consisting of closed questions with four-point Likert scales. The rationale behind the project, including the questionnaire development, theoretical background, proceduresfor data collection, etc. is described in Schreiner and Sjøberg (2004) available in print from the authors or from the project website2. In this article, we will present the ROSE project, and include a few general results from analysis of the data material. In the discussion of the results, special attention will be paid to the countries at the Asian continent.
1This article draws on material from the following publications: Schreiner, 2006; Schreiner & Sjøberg, 2004, 2005; Schreiner & Sjøberg, 2006
2www.ils.uio.no/forskning/rose/
