NEWS

WHAT DO STUDENTS THINK ABOUT SCIENCE?

Soustas Panagiotis
Experimental School of University of Macedonia,
Thessaloniki, Greece
mail@gym-peir-uom.thess.sch.gr
At the 8th EPMeeting in Thessaloniki (November 2006) a project was produced based on a ques-
tionnaire whose questions concerned the science course and the way it is taught in Greek schools.
This included the likeability of students about science, their opinion about the difficulty of the lesson,
the time they spend reading it, their need or not of help and the way through which they get it.
It would be very interesting if we had opinions from other European students about the teaching
of Science in their countries.

The answers were 75 out of 75 persons and the questions were:

Do you like science?
Is it difficult?
How much time do you spend reading science?
Do you need help for it?
If you need help what kind of help do you need?

100

80 like science Do you like science?

60
• 46% likes science
don't like
science
40
don't like • 45% doesn’t like science
science at all
20
• 8% doesn’t like science at all
0

100

80
Is it difficult?
60 Very difficult
Easy • 29% answered that science is very difficult
40 Very easy
• 65% answered that it is easy
20 • 6% answered that it is very easy
0

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 Discover your own way to
enjoy science at school
100

80
Do you need help?
60
don't need help
40 Need help • 61% doesn’t need help
20
• 39% needs help

100

80
1 hour How much time do you read science?
60
• 58% reads less than 1 hour
2hours
40
More than 2 • 33% reads less than 2 hours
• 8% reads more than 2 hours
hours
20

100
90 Extra lessons If you need help what kind of help do you need?
80
• 43% does not need help
Help from books
70
60
50 Help from parents • Parents help the 26%
40 • 14% has extra books that help the students
Both help from
30
parents and books explain the lesson and solve the exercises
20
10
No help • 10% has extra lessons
0 • 6% has help books and is helped by parents

Some suggestions

Generally students are not happy with the way that science is taught in schools. Especially with the
books, which are very difficult to read because they use complicated words. Things should get better
for Greek students.
Firstly we should visit the laboratories more often. We can also modify the books by adding and
abstracting topics, which are easier. This can be done with the help of our teachers. Thus all the stu-
dents will understand some of the implicit points of the books.

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