Public Knowledge of and Attitudes to Science: Alternative Measures That May End the "Science War (original) (raw)
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ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE IN UNIVERSITY POPULATION
2006
The following study examines the attitudes towards science, via a questionnaire administered to a sample of 107 students from the University of Malta, with the media framework in mind. It investigates the level of interest in science within the general media framework, and ranks the different areas of science according to the interest they elicit in the respondents. This survey determines which are the most utilised channels of information about science, and their efficiency. Another part of this study gauges the attitude towards science as part of one’s own culture. Finally, it determines the level of scientific knowledge, both on the level of scientific facts, and on the level of scientific processes. This study also investigates the correlation between the understanding of processes of scientific inquiry, and understanding of scientific knowledge.
Recent research on attitudes concerning science
Science Education, 1969
32, 341 briefly summarized some of the research conducted during the preceding period on attitudes toward science and scientists. Since these reviews were not concerned solely with attitudes, the topic was given rather superficial treatment. The review by Matala and McCollum [ 3 2 ] had a number of things to say about attitudes and interests in elementary science, but the summaries by Boeck and Washton [ 101 of science attitudes in the secondary school and by Miles and Van Deventer [34] of attitudes at the college and university level were very brief. In the decade since these three reviews were written, several dozen published articles and dissertations have dealt with the topic of attitudes toward science. And although no highly consistent picture of the nature, causes, and development of science attitudes has emerged from these studies, a survey of methods and findings should prove interesting and useful to science teachers, researchers, and others concerned with the teaching of science. SCIENCE ATTITUDES, ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENTISTS, A N D THE S C I E N T I F I C ATTITUDE
Public understanding of science and social studies of science: convergence or parallel paths
Science Communication Today. Current Strategies and Means of Action , 2015
Despite their relative semantic proximity, the fields of public understanding of science (PUS) and social studies of science (SSS) / science and technology studies or science, technology and society (both STS) 1 appear to acknowledge their origins in different traditions, types of practice and trajectories. My purpose in this paper is to examine recent developments in both fields, observing the way they have been shaped in varying contexts and attempting to establish the extent to which they are converging towards a unified space of theory and practice, or whether each one operates relatively independently from the other. With this in mind, I provide a brief summary of the emergence of these fields in Europe, the United States and Latin America in order to identify the modulations characteristic of each context. I then go on to discuss the role played by PUS studies at two types
The society is bit passive and dependent on scientists and local policy makers when it comes to discussing science and its advancements. Though some people appreciate the ‘knowledge of science and technology’ and recognize that scientific advancements could account for changes in life-style and overall well-being by overcoming great challenges including socio-economic and strategic ones, the public, in general, do not understand how science works; what its implications are, what to choose in science education, etc. Understanding the nature of science and the translation of the science research for the public and or the non-expert audience is a challenging task. Science educators can achieve science literacy in the public through regular dialogues and the science communicators can motivate the people and awaken public’s interest in science. Herein, the author proposes public engagement activities that make science accessible to the nonexperts and provide them with open platforms for reforming foundations for their knowledge of scientific activities and relevant policy developments where they can critically voice their perspectives on contemporary science education, practice and policies. Good science education and its applications offer something new to the society: new information or just a new way of looking at well-known facts.
Examination of Secondary School Students' Views towards Scientific Knowledge
Abstract The aims of this study are to identify the views of the secondary students towards scientific knowledge and to analyze the relationship between their views towards scientific knowledge and their academic achievement and scientific attitudes. The participants of the study are a total of 634 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students attending those schools serving to the students with a lower, medium or higher socio‐economic status in a city in western Turkey. The data of the study were collected through the use three different tools, namely " Scale on Views towards Scientific Knowledge " , " Scientific Attitude Scale " and " Demographic Form ". The findings of the study showed that students have nearly positive views towards scientific knowledge. It is further found that their views towards scientific knowledge significantly vary based on their gender and grade level. In addition, the total scores of students in regard to their views towards scientific knowledge are positively correlated with their academic achievement and total scores of scientific attitude. Based on the findings of the study, activities to improve the students' views towards scientific knowledge can be carried out not only in science and technology courses, but also in other courses.
Once modern society depends in large-scale of scientific development, the degree of association between scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science has historical, social and political implications. In this sense, it becomes crucial to analyze the public attitudes regarding to science as these are related to the changing context of scientific practices and their implications for practical problems. Thus, we developed a survey instrument that allowed us to assess the causal relationships and correlations between conceptions, attitudes and socio-demographic factors in relation to science, using as a mediator theme the genetic engineering. Among the socio-demographic factors are included: gender, age, income, religion, schooling, consumption of information provided by the media, perception of knowledge and personal experience. For the composition of the sample, students from various undergraduate courses from public and private institutions were selected. The data were analyzed quantitatively by structural equation modeling. The results show that the conceptions that people have about science directly and positively influence their attitudes towards science. The social factors have their weight, but on a much smaller scale.