A preferência dos jovens brasileiros pela disciplina ciências: interesse absoluto x interesse relativo

Abstract

Research on science teaching has shown a growing lack of youngsters’ interest in scientific subjects throughout school education. In addition, young adults have been less interested in pursuing careers or academic studies in scientific areas. This loss of interest is concerning since scientific knowledge is important for school education, and the economic and social development is increasingly associated with scientific and technological advances. Among other relevant studies in this area in Brazil, research associated to the ROSE project (The Relevance of Science Education) seeks to listen to the student's perspective in relation to their interests in and attitudes towards science and technology. Young Brazilians consider school science important, but it is not among their favorite subjects. This creates a paradox between absolute preference and relative preference. We sought to investigate how young Brazilians are distributed in relation to the paradox preference for the Science discipline and how the interest in learning topics in science and technology, extracurricular activities, and the learners’ opinion on their science classes help understand this paradox. Regarding the preference for scientific subjects, the youngsters are divided into four groups: Specific Priority (30.6%) presents high relative and absolute preference. This group tends to show positive attitude towards and interest in science and technology; Other Priority (45.15%) presents high absolute interest and low relative interest. Their interests and attitudes are dispersed in this area, with their interest focused more on the health area; Poor priority (20.26%) presents low absolute and relative preference for the subject. This group tends to have negative attitude towards and interest in this area; Not-positive priority (3.98%) has high relative interest and low absolute interest in sciences. Knowing how young people behave in relation to sciences is important since it may help schoolteachers create pedagogical strategies for teaching. Moreover, it is essential for curriculum reform in basic and higher education fostered by the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), which impacts different levels of education, especially high school and its training itineraries.