THAI YOUTH ENGAGEMENT IN SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION IN OUT-OF-CLASS CONTEXT
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Abstract
Promoting scientific literacy is one of the educational focus to support innovative society in the national development plan. Science education in out of class context or lifelong science education also plays important role to ensure the inclusion of non-science students as well as youth outside formal school system, so that the members of the society are prepared for the rapid change in the science and technology. The purpose of this research is to study the lifelong learning of science of Thai youth especially in their acquiring of scientific information in out of class context. The data was collected from 3,064 youth aged 15-24 years old all over the country using questionnaire. The results were statistically analyzed using frequency distribution and percentage and showed that majority of 51% of the youth spent 1-4 hours per week learning science in out of class context while another 28% spent less than one hour, while their major source of science information is online media, especially Facebook. As much as 70% of youth agreed that certain degree of scientific knowledge is required for use in their daily life. About 79% said that they sometimes followed scientific updates information. Three major barriers to science learning from these out of class information were mentioned ; 1) the information was “too difficult to understand”, 2) the information was in other language (not Thai) and 3) the information was not fit their interests. Most youth agreed that the scientific information available nowadays was not adequate, while science related to climate change, energy, biotechnology, health, and biodiversity scored better in term of their communication. Scientists were the most reliable source of information among youth, followed by university academicians. This study suggested that Thai youth were still positive and showed willingness to science learning in out of class context, and expected to see more scientific information that was easy to understand and fit their interests. It is interesting to see that certain area of science and technology related to government policy were not a popular subjects. This result can be used for planning and developing in lifelong education to engage young generation to science and technology
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