Japanese high schoolers lack interest in science
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001480859
Among high school students in four countries—China, Japan, South Korea and the United States—Japanese high school students show the least interest in science, according to a survey by the National Institute for Youth Education.
The survey, results of which were released Wednesday, was conducted from September to December last year with responses from about 6,500 high school students in the four countries. Third-year students in South Korea did not participate in the survey due to preparations for university entrance examinations.
Regarding nature and science, 79.3 percent of Chinese high school students said they were somewhat interested or very much interested, followed by 63.6 percent in the United States, 63.1 percent in South Korea and 59.5 percent in Japan.
Concerning whether there was anything related to nature or science that has strongly interested them in the past year, 70.1 percent of Chinese high school students—the highest among the four nations—said there had been, followed by 66.9 percent in the United States, 65.1 percent in South Korea and 55.9 percent in Japan.
As for whether they had conducted independent research on science outside of the classroom and then written a paper or report on the results, the survey said that Japanese high school students had the highest positive response rate among the four nations, with 54.6 percent. However, the figure was at its peak in the fifth year of primary school.
The survey said that those who considered scientific knowledge unnecessary after leaving education were the highest in Japan at 44.3 percent, followed by 30.2 percent in South Korea, 22.4 percent in the United States and 19.2 percent in China.
The survey said that 48 percent of U.S. high school students said they would like to get a job that has something to do with science in the future, followed by 44 percent in South Korea, 31.8 percent in China and 27.6 percent in Japan.
According to Yoichi Akashi, director of the Research Center for Youth Education, which ran the survey: “The survey clearly shows that Japanese students are moving away from the sciences as they advance through the school grades. When they become high school students, they focus only on science study aimed at passing university entrance exams, such as memorization. Therefore, we believe that they will lose curiosity regarding nature and scientific phenomena.”