Students’ concerns and interests related to socio-scientific issues

Abstract

Socio-scientific Issues can be used as a way to contextualize everyday situations and, through STS teaching, instigate the student to think, reflect and act on the themes proposed by the teacher in the classroom, enabling an understanding of their social reality. However, few studies attempt to identify students’ interests in learning about these topics. The objective of this work was to carry out a survey of students’ concerns and interests in relation to the various current socio-scientific issues and compare them to the results of the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) project, through a closed questionnaire on a Likert scale. The questionnaire was applied to 200 students from the 1st and 3rd years of high school in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The results showed that students have many concerns and interests in relation to the socio-scientific issues identified, highlighting the themes of water and food with the greatest preference of students. Knowing them can allow the teacher to plan his classes seeking to reflect on the scientific-technological, social and environmental aspects of the themes. With a view to promoting an education in which students perceive themselves to be participants in society and recognize their role in transforming social reality.