INCREASING THE RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION – STUDENT PREFERENCES FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEACHING SCENARIOS

Research has shown that teaching based on social issues makes science more relevant to students. Students are motivated to learn, if the science content is understandable, interesting and connected with their everyday life. The goal of this study was to determine which issues were relevant to students and the reasons for this. Issues were presented in the form of scenarios – as a story that leads students into learning science by considering the wider goals of education. Three different categories of scenarios were defined: subject oriented, social issue-based focused on student personal experience and social issue-based, focused on global societal problems. All scenarios were developed by science teachers during a STL training course. Two hundred and seventy two grade seven to nine students from two schools (suburban town and city) were asked to choose and evaluate the three most interesting scenarios from nine. The results of the study showed gender based differences. Girls were interested in issues that were connected with their health and outlook. Boys liked to study more about the things, which happen in society.