Biotechnology literacy: Assessing the knowledge and attitudes of student teachers

In modern society, science and technology have become key fields affecting the daily lives of all citizens. Furthermore, young people will need this new knowledge in their future careers and in their daily lives as members of a technologically-imbued society. Developing a level of biotechnology literacy across Canadian society may become an essential factor in future prosperity. Teachers need a high level of this literacy to foster students’ development of this competency. This paper is based on preliminary results from an international survey in Canada, China, and Spain. The survey aims to better understand the knowledge and attitudes of student teachers towards biotechnology which could potentially reflect on their teaching in the future; in other words their level of biotechnology literacy. The validated survey was administered to intermediate/senior and primary/junior pre-service students in the Faculty of Education. Canadian survey results for the primary/junior pre-service students are compared with those in the intermediate/senior program. These results will be compared to those obtained in other countries. Since biotechnology is having an ever increasing impact on society, this research will provide insight into the extent pre-service education programs need to be expanded and re-developed in order to incorporate and address the growing need for such knowledge