Science education in Italy: Critical and desirable aspects of learning environments

Science teaching plays an important role in the contemporary society, but nowadays, many high school students are often not interested in school science. The purpose of the study was to enhance the quality of teaching and to encourage learners to study science, making student learning more effective and meaningful. The opinions of different stakeholders was taken into account. In Italy, almost 200 participants, counting both teachers and students, answered a questionnaire concerning the following aspects of teaching and learning: situations, contexts, motives; basic concepts and topics; scientific fields and perspectives; qualification; methodical aspects. The results obtained showed the priorities and main gaps in current science education. In particular, scientific literacy should be essentially based on three concepts: the development of communication skills, the improvement of intellectual skills and the development of personality. Unfortunately the study has also highlighted that the approaches judged more effective are not really common in the current educational panorama.