ALTERATION OF STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN SCIENCE TOPICS IN LATVIA: 2003 – 2008

A number of researches confirm that students' interest in science both in Lower and Upper secondary school has a tendency to decrease. Various international comparative studies such as OECD PISA, TIMSS and ROSE reveal comparatively low achievements of students in Latvia. To analyze the causes behind such a situation it is important to carry out longitudinal studies. The analysis of the results obtained during ROSE studies in 2003 - 2008 show that, through the five year period, the most popular and unpopular science topics basically have remained the same, and there are no significant differences in the distribution of ranks. Changes in the mean value are also not statistically significant, though absolute values have a tendency to decrease. One of the most unpopular topics is “Atoms and molecules”, which is the ground topic in the chemistry course. The results confirm that the differences between mean values marked by girls and boys have slightly diminished, which testifies that the Latvian cohort of students both in Lower and Upper Secondary school has become more homogenous.