Taber Keith S, Billingsley Berry, Riga Fran
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, UK.
School of Teacher Education and Development, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK.
SN Soc Sci. 2021;1(5):104. doi: 10.1007/s43545-021-00130-9. Epub 2021 Apr 30.
There has been concern about the attractiveness of science-based careers to many adolescent learners, and it has been suggested that school science may not always recognise or engage personal values that are important to young people in making life choices. The present study discusses interview comments made by upper secondary level students in England when 15 young people were asked to give their personal responses to brief vignettes describing scientific careers. Using an interview-about-scenarios approach, the students were asked about whether they would feel comfortable working in the scientific careers represented. The career areas were purposefully selected because they might be considered to potentially raise issues in relation to personal values or commitments that some students might hold. A range of student perceptions relating to the mooted careers were elicited (positive, negative and indifferent), but all of the participants raised issues that impacted on the acceptability or attractiveness of at least one of the mooted scientific careers, in terms of aspects of their own personal beliefs and values systems. It is recommended that teachers and career advisors should be aware of the range of value-related considerations that influence student views of science-related careers and should consider exploring aspects of science-based careers that link to values commonly shared by young people. This exploratory study also offers indications for directions for further research exploring how learners' value systems impact upon their perceptions of science and scientific work.
许多青少年学习者对以科学为基础的职业吸引力表示担忧，有人认为学校科学教育可能并不总能认识到或涉及对年轻人做出人生选择至关重要的个人价值观。本研究讨论了英国高中学生的访谈评论，当时15名年轻人被要求对描述科学职业的简短情景做出个人回应。采用情景访谈法，询问学生是否会对所描述的科学职业感到工作舒适。职业领域是经过有目的地挑选的，因为它们可能被认为有可能引发与一些学生可能持有的个人价值观或信念相关的问题。引发了一系列与所讨论职业相关的学生看法（积极、消极和冷漠），但所有参与者都提出了一些问题，这些问题从他们自己的个人信仰和价值体系方面影响了至少一个所讨论的科学职业的可接受性或吸引力。建议教师和职业顾问应意识到影响学生对与科学相关职业看法的一系列与价值相关的考虑因素，并应考虑探索与年轻人普遍共有的价值观相关的以科学为基础的职业方面。这项探索性研究还为进一步研究提供了方向，即探索学习者的价值体系如何影响他们对科学和科学工作的看法。
