Science in society or science in school: Swedish secondary school science teachers’ beliefs about science and science lessons in comparison with what their students want to learn

Abstract

This article presents comparisons concerned with secondary school science teachers’ and their students’ beliefs about science and technology and also what science content secondary science teachers teach and what their students want to learn. Student data are part of the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) study and the teacher data are part of an extensive study carried out only in Sweden. The results indicate that both secondary science teachers and their students are optimistic about science and technology as essential parts of societal development. When content from these knowledge fields is considered for instruction, significant disparities exist between what teachers teach and what their students want to learn. Additional results concerning the secondary science teachers’ beliefs, ‘out-ofschool experiences’, ‘Science Technology and Society’ (STS) approaches and ‘inquiry-based instruction’ are pointed out as important for the development of science instruction in secondary schools. The results are discussed in the contexts of students’ voices and teachers’ beliefs.