History and Past Activities
|
|
History and Past Activities |
Maria Alexandra Abreu Lima e Lia Vasconcelos
Estação Agronómica Nacional e Universidade Nova de Lisboa
One Step Further: young student’s perceptions on plant biotechnology and their ethical reasoning about S&T in shaping adult visioning
This paper presents on going research on plant biotechnology. It shows Portuguese young student’s perceptions about plant biotechnology and their ethical reasoning about S&T, exploring its consequences to adult coining on these issues.
Data about young student’s perceptions concerning plant biotechnology and their ethical reasoning about S&T were obtained from surveys carried during an Educational Pilot Project about plant genetics and biotechnology included on the specific ‘Aid Programme for Research Projects on Educative Domain’ 2001’ from the Educational and Grants Section of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/Lisbon.
At the beginning a total of 189 students (adolescents) from ten Portuguese secondary professional schools (mainly agricultural and rural development ones), located all over the country and covering a range of rural, suburban and urban areas were engaged on this pilot project. All schools had a similar Biology curricula, containing few or none biotechnology topics.
The didactic material edited during the project on paper and digital versions (Cdrom and Website www.institutovirtual.pt/edu-agri-biotec) were made available to 94 students from ‘Enrolled Schools -ES’ who received and explored them. Other 95 students from ‘Collaborative schools -CS’ didn’t received neither explored these didactic material (‘control group’).
At the beginning, a Pre-test has revealed that students’ scientific awareness was incomplete, with some ideas correct, others quite wrong (www.institutovirtual.pt/edu-agri-biotec/doc/ficheiros_word/pre_teste/tiec.ppt).
Later a Post-test was done (March-April 2003) by a total of 162 students (82 from ES and 80 from CS; an approximately ratio of 1:1) in order to study, not only the students comprehension about genetics and genetic engineering, but also to evaluate their reasoning about ethical issues and also their perceptions concerning plant biotechnology, namely about it’s: Development pace (great vs. slow); Need of specific legislation (is subjected/does need vs. not subjected/doesn’t need); Relationship with environment (their is a relationship vs. none relationship exists) and Usefulness (useful vs. useless).
Detailed results concerning student’s ability to answer ethical questions and students’ perceptions about Plant Biotechnology will be shown. It will also be shown data about future and more complete research to be held with adults, which will include both quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (focus groups) methodologies, aimed to identify plant biotechnology related topics such us: responsibility (in the event of a problem); awareness, willingness and usefulness of different plant biotechnology applications; among others.
Results from these study included namely:
- on Plant Biotechnology Development Pace - majority of students (from both ES and CS) perceive this development pace as being great. Slow development pace was an option for few students
- and on Plant Biotechnology Usefulness -the majority of students (from both ES and CS) perceive plant biotechnology as useful. Useless was an option for few students.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006