CHOOSING SCIENCE: The Role Of Social Values

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the researcher investigated whether social values have a role in students' decisions to study the natural sciences. The research employed ethnography which included interactive discussions on some Relevance Of Science Education(ROSE) slides and focus group interviews as data collecting instruments. The research was done within the joint framework of the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Goal Theory. Collected data from the entire study indicate conformity with both theories to a large extent. Findings reveal that social values play both motivational and attitudinal roles in the students' choices of the natural sciences at higher secondary school level. Social values inform reasons for some students' attachment to the natural sciences as well as other students’ disenchantment with those subjects. Taken together, the findings suggest that social values may help explain present levels of take-up of natural science as career.