
M. A. O. RUIZ ET AL.
Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 995
Figure 3.
Influence of science and technology on societ y.
It was also observed that the surveyed students have not re-
ceived an education in specific or general STS concepts to en-
able them to understand such relationship, nor to understand the
nature of science in particular, because the university curricula
and below grades did not consider it enough. Therefore, their
beliefs and attitudes are not configured for a formal school
curriculum to address these issues directly and explicitly. Con-
sequently, education rests on a hidden school curriculum, im-
plicit and unplanned with teacher beliefs implicitly transmitted
in different classroom activities and laboratory, textbooks and
other curricula materials, and especially informal education:
information media, social programs, magazines, movies, mu-
seums and exhibitions of science and technology (Garritz,
Porro, Rembado, & Trinidad, 2007).
Conclusion
The purpose of science teaching with STS focus, in addition
to preparing UPBC students to become professionals with sci-
entific knowledge, also helps them understand better how sci-
ence and technology works in the world today.
Given the axiological nature impregnated with attitudinal
contents and values of education, STS is seeks the adherence of
the students towards a particular position. It presents different
perspectives, encouraging the students to invest greater efforts
to acquire the knowledge’s and the tools for their integration in
the modern society, so they can play a predominant position for
the public and personal benefit. In this mode they will reach a
better understanding to evaluate critically the actual interactions
between academic, industry and government. This knowledge
will facilitate the understanding of the global world in which
the students will improve their professional development (Aiken-
head, 2002).
It is useful for teachers to have a formation in STS concepts
in order to achieve scientific and technological alphabetization
of the citizenry. Programs are also required to address directly
and explicitly the STS contents and to allow an effective reflec-
tion of teaching staff on these issues. (Aikenhead & Rayan,
1992). Therefore, we must always include a plurality of authors
or approaches with a depth and extension consistent with the
abilities and developmental level of students.
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