Science for all or science for some: What Swedish students want to learn about in secondary science and technology and their opinions on science lessons

Abstract

This article presents Swedish results from ‘the Relevance of Science Education’ (ROSE) study, which is a large world wide comparative research project based at the University of Oslo. The Swedish sample consisted of 751 students, most of whom were 15 years old, from 29 schools and data were collected inspring 2003. Student opinions about science lessons are presented in relation to enrolment intentions for upper secondary school together with what they want to learn about in science and technology.The findings indicate that secondary science instruction seems to address only a minority of the students, those that have chosen science or technology in their further education. At the same time, all students have interest in science and technology and many seem most interested in some important issues in societal development. The results are discussed from the perspective of learners and contribute to the debate about establishing a scientific literacy approach in compulsory education.