Students’ interest toward topics with a science-technology-society-environment orientation

Abstract

Since its birth, the science, technology, society and environment (CTSA) movement has been a transdisciplinary field, made up of topics about history, sociology, epistemology, psychology, economics, gender, environment, etc. On the other hand, students’ interest in curricular science topics is a decisive attitudinal variable for their learning, although interest in CTSA topics has been taken for granted thanks to its innovative nature and has barely been investigated. This study empirically explores the interest of today’s students toward some CTSA topics, the identification of the most and least interesting topics, differences in interest between boys and girls, and the possibility of an equitable curriculum for boys and girls. The analysis applies a quantitative and qualitative mixed method to the responses of 670 15-year-old Spanish students about their interest in knowing more about a set of 37 CTSA topics, quantified in percentages and weighted averages, which are arranged and interpreted qualitatively. The results indicate that the global average interest towards all CTSA topics is positive, the most interesting topic is why we dream and the meaning of dreams and the least interesting is the lives of scientists. The comparison between girls and boys shows that girls ponder topics related to female idiosyncrasy (abortion) and fantasy (ghosts) more interesting, while boys have greater interest in technological aspects (energies). Finally, implications and recommendations for designing an equitable CTSA curriculum are discussed, as well as some limitations of the study.