Balancing the Needs between Training for Future Scientists and Broader Societal Needs--SECURE Project Research on Mathematics, Science and Technology Curricula and Their Implementation

Y

12

STEM Education; Foreign Countries; Mixed Methods Research; Curriculum; Questionnaires; Interviews; Teacher Attitudes; Student Attitudes; Age Differences; Mathematics Instruction; Science Instruction; Technology Education; Likert Scales

Austria; Belgium; Cyprus; Germany; Italy; Netherlands; Poland; Slovenia; Sweden; United Kingdom (England)

2077-2327

SECURE is a collaborative project under FP7 to provide research results of current mathematics, science and technology (MST) curricula across Europe. The research focuses on the MST curricula offered to 5, 8, 11 and 13 year old learners in ten European countries. The consortium invited 60 schools from each partner country to participate in the project. Altogether almost 9000 pupils, 1500 teachers and 600 schools took part in the study. The research framework is constructed upon the curriculum spider web. A mixed method approach for the analysis of the MST curricula is applied throughout three different representations of the curriculum: the "intended" (formal curriculum documents), the "implemented" (the actual process of teaching, researched on the basis of questionnaires and interviews with teachers) and the "attained curriculum" (focus on learning experiences, researched on the basis of questionnaires and interviews with learners). This contribution is a part of our broader study concerning the average European results on learners' and teachers' attitude towards MST subjects and their opinions on the role of affective domain in everyday school practice. The objective is to investigate the influence of topics, activities and teachers on liking the MST subjects by pupils and to research teachers' perception of motivation in everyday school practice. The study shows a substantial drop of the impact of all three factors on students' positive attitude towards all MST subjects, especially between ages 8 and 11. This trend is repeated by mathematics teachers in their opinions about easiness of motivating learners towards their subject, but not duplicated by the teachers of science and technology. Teachers are also divided as regarding the importance of motivating the students: only the mathematicians agree that this aspect is crucial. The study shows a significant misunderstanding between learners and teachers of science and technology in aspect of motivation towards school subjects across Europe.

As Provided

27

2014

EJ1022905