Student interests — the German and Austrian ROSE survey

ROSE (the Relevance of Science Education) is an international comparative study on the factors which influence learning in science. For this study, the interests, opinions and attitudes of young people were polled by using a standardised questionnaire. Initial data, empirically gathered from 1247 students at the end of lower secondary level in Germany and Austria, are presented in this study. The findings make it possible to identify typical adolescent topics and give information about the change of adolescent interests in the past 10 years. They verify that above all, contexts connected with health, fitness, mysticism and spectacular events are interesting for today's young generation. Curriculum development can be informed by a better knowledge of girls' and boys' interests in science topics.