What is an ‘Interesting Curriculum’ for Biotechnology Education? Students and Teachers Opposing Views

Abstract

Of concern is an international trend of students' increasing reluctance to choose science courses in both their final years of secondary school and tertiary levels of education. Research into the phenomenon indicates an influencing factor to be the 'uninteresting curriculum' (OECD 2006) of school science. This paper presents an exploration of what biotechnology key ideas students and teachers consider to be interesting. A survey was constructed and completed by 500 Australian students and their 35 teachers. Interviews were conducted with a sample of students and teachers. The Chi-square statistics revealed a significant difference between the student and teacher survey responses in four of the six a priori factors. A rank ordering of the key ideas, based on whole group mean scores, indicates only a small overlap in modern biotechnology key ideas of interest to both the students and teachers. The results suggest the key ideas teachers are interested in and incorporate into their curriculum, are not the key ideas students are interested in learning about. This mismatch is particularly prevalent and problematic in situations where curriculum choice is available within a mandated framework or syllabus, which is the case for these teachers and students. The study also found students withdrawing from biology courses in post compulsory settings due to lack of interest and perceived lack of relevance of the course.

A Shadow Curriculum: Incorporating Students’ Interests into the Formal Biology Curriculum

“…Students' questions, on the other hand, ignored applications in agriculture, asked few questions about the biotechnology industry, and addressed the medical applications of genetic engineering. These findings mirror those described by Kidman (2009), in which Australian students were most interested in biotechnology topics that might have personal relevance or ideas that involve hands-on experimentation, whereas their teachers were most interested in teaching about GM crops.…”

“…Research Aim Kidman's (2009) findings, in concert with the results presented by Wood et al (2009) suggest that teachers' interests in Biology do not accurately represent the interests of their students. More emphasis should therefore be placed on what students want to know in order to create a relevant biology curriculum.…”

“…Teachers and curriculum developers should be encouraged to determine students' interests, and relate these interests to subject matter to provide a base for new knowledge (Kidman 2009). Similarly, Christidou (2006) argues that science curricula should become more appealing to students by integrating topics and experiences that are interesting and relevant to them.…”

“…Within younger age groups, Haussler and Hoffmann (2002) who studied 11-16 year old students' interests in Physics, found that anything embedded in the context of the human body is attributed high interest scores. Kidman (2009) provides direct evidence that teachers have different interests in Biology than their students: Australian students responded to a list of topics in modern biotechnology, indicating which topics they would like to learn about. The students were most interested in topics that might have personal relevance or ideas that involved hands-on experimentation, including cloning their own plant, gene profiling for paternity, testing natural antibiotics, altering human gene codes and extracting DNA.…”

“…The students were most interested in topics that might have personal relevance or ideas that involved hands-on experimentation, including cloning their own plant, gene profiling for paternity, testing natural antibiotics, altering human gene codes and extracting DNA. Their teachers, on the other hand, were most interested in teaching different topics, such as the impact of GM crops on environment and health, ethics in media articles, and a GM cotton which produces its own insecticide (Kidman 2009). …”