Abstract
The speed of development of biotechnology within agriculture, industry, and medicine has changed our lives, and we need a biotechnological literacy to understand it. This implies that teachers in primary schools need to be biotechnologically literate in order to educate future generations. The aim of this study was to investigate Swedish pre-service primary school teachers’ knowledge of and attitudes towards biotechnology and contextualize the results by comparing them with a corresponding group of Spanish teachers. Data was collected using the established questionnaire instrument Biotech XXI and analyzed statistically. The findings demonstrate that Swedish pre-service primary school teachers have knowledge gaps relating to the basic genetic concepts that underpin biotechnology, although they are aware of biotechnological applications. Their attitudes are quite positive towards biotechnological applications in health, but less so to buying and using genetically modified products. Higher levels of knowledge were correlated with more positive attitudes, indicating an attitudinal basis for expanding the knowledge of and teaching practices for biotechnology among primary teachers. The level of knowledge and attitudes in the Swedish sample were similar to those of the Spanish teachers, suggesting a similar situation may be prevalent in many countries. The results indicate a need to reconsider the science curricula within pre-service primary school teacher training programs in order to better prepare primary teachers for teaching biotechnological literacy.
Highlights
During the twenty-first century, biotechnology is one of the science disciplines that has undergone the most rapid development, with significant implications for our society (Usak et al, 2009)
57% of the students did not think that consumption of genetically modified (GM) foods was dangerous, but 67% of them said that genetic manipulation should be more strictly regulated
The knowledge test revealed that Swedish pre-service primary school teachers scored a high percentage of correct answers for questions related to understanding genetic disease and applications of biotechnology
Summary
During the twenty-first century, biotechnology is one of the science disciplines that has undergone the most rapid development, with significant implications for our society (Usak et al, 2009). In response to the biotechnological revolution, many curricula around the world include biotechnology (Klop & Severiens, 2007) This poses educational challenges to teachers, especially primary teachers, who often have limited biotechnological knowledge (Chabalengula et al, 2011). In order to enable all teachers to promote biotechnological literacy in primary education, we first need to know pre-service primary school teachers’ existing knowledge and attitudes. In order to involve society in the decision-making process about scientific policies, we need well-informed citizens who are able to make insightful decisions based on scientific conclusions In this context, science education worldwide promotes, as an important goal of science teaching, scientific and technological literacy (Bybee et al, 2009; Roberts, 2007; Zoller, 2012). Without a basic knowledge of genetics, it is difficult to evaluate biotechnological applications (Gericke & Smith, 2014)
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