Important but not for me: students’ attitudes towards secondary school science in England

Abstract

This article presents some of the results of the questionnaire‐based Relevance of Science Education Project (ROSE) carried out in England in the latter half of 2003 as part of a wider international comparative study based at the University of Oslo. Data, drawn from 1277 students, most of whom were 14 or 15 years old, indicate their views about their school science education, their choice of careers and what they would most like to learn about in their science lessons. The findings are placed in the context of other accounts of the ‘student voice’ in science education and their implications for policy and science curriculum reform are discussed.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the following: the students who completed the questionnaires; their schools and their teachers who made the necessary arrangements; colleagues in the Department of Teacher Education and School Development at the University of Oslo for coding the ROSE data from English schools and for advice on a number of related matters, and the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Ministry of Education, the University of Oslo and the National Centre for Science Education in Norway for their financial support of the ROSE project.

Notes

There is also a greater emphasis on data collected from developing countries.