Attitudes and beliefs in Chemistry-Society-Environment (CSE) in undergraduate students of the Natural Sciences degree in UFRN

Abstract

Choices regarding the various aspects of Science and Technology, such as career choices, interest in studying and school performance, have roots in the attitudes and beliefs acquired throughout life. From this, comes the researchers’ interest in these categories. Starting from this premise, this paper’s objective is to understand if the vision of students at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) regarding Chemistry’s role in society and in the environment has any correlation with learning experiences in this subject. Therefore, a qualitative and quantitative treatment of the data analyzed was chosen. The instruments were applied in June 2013 to students in Biology, Chemistry and Physics undergraduate courses. 32 Biology students, 24 Chemistry students and 13 Physics students participated in this study. The results of the Likert scale showed that there is a very optimistic attitude regarding Chemistry’s role in society. However, there is neither a clear position regarding Chemistry’s importance as a course subject nor regarding the learning experiences of this curricular component. Analyzing the data from the differential scale, it is noted that the score values presented by the students majoring in Chemistry are greater in a large part of the comparisons, in such a way that they tend to distort the results if they are not discussed separately. In conclusion, notwithstanding the belief in the importance of Chemistry knowledge, students from other careers do not feel confident regarding their Chemistry learning.