Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia

Nurnadiah Mohamed Bahri; Evi Suryawati; Kamisah Osman

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

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Nurnadiah Mohamed Bahri ¹, Evi Suryawati ², Kamisah Osman ¹ ^*

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¹ The National University of Malaysia, MALAYSIA² Riau University, INDONESIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Biotechnology has been widely applied in various products throughout the 21st century. Malaysia selected the biotechnology sector as one of the key strategic technologies that would enable Malaysia to transform into a fully developed nation by the year 2020. However, to date, there has been very little research on the level of biotechnology literacy amongst school students in Malaysia and the aim of this study is to determine the presence of biotechnology literacy, based on knowledge, perception, and attitude. Besides, this study also determines the factors affecting the students’ attitude towards biotechnology. This study is a quantitative study involving 292 secondary school students from science and non-science classes. The findings showed that overall students have what we describe as a medium level of knowledge, perception, and attitude towards biotechnology. It is anticipated that this pattern of findings can help teachers, the Ministry of Education and the media to strategically plan ahead so that improvements in the national curriculum can be proposed and implemented.

Keywords

biotechnology
biotechnology literacy
knowledge
perception
attitude

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2014, Volume 10, Issue 3, 195-207

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

Publication date: 15 Dec 2014

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How to cite this article

APA

Bahri, N. M., Suryawati, E., & Osman, K. (2014). Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 10(3), 195-207. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

Vancouver

Bahri NM, Suryawati E, Osman K. Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2014;10(3):195-207. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

AMA

Bahri NM, Suryawati E, Osman K. Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2014;10(3), 195-207. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

Chicago

Bahri, Nurnadiah Mohamed, Evi Suryawati, and Kamisah Osman. "Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2014 10 no. 3 (2014): 195-207. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

Harvard

Bahri, N. M., Suryawati, E., and Osman, K. (2014). Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 10(3), pp. 195-207. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a

MLA

Bahri, Nurnadiah Mohamed et al. "Students’ Biotechnology Literacy: The Pillars of STEM Education in Malaysia". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 10, no. 3, 2014, pp. 195-207. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2014.1075a