Changing trends in student interests and goals: "Taking advantage of

edited by ELLEN and JAY BARDOLE VincenneS University Vincennes, Indiana 47591

Changing Trends in Student Interests and Goals: "Taking Advantage of New Student Interests" John Mitchell Tarrant County Junior College Hurst, Texas 76053 Below I will discuss briefly several "perceived" trends. First, however, as a disclaimer, I'll have to admit that some of these perceived trends may not he trends a t all, that most of them are not particularly new, and that a t least one of them is neeative. and thus realls offers little that we can "take ad" vantage of." Let's heein with the negative trend, which is the only one clearly documented as a t r e n d . As documentation of this trend, consider the following quotes excerpted from an article in the July 8, 1978, issue of Science News. T h e title of the article was "High School Students Lag in Science." It dealt with a report issued by the HEW-sponsored National Assessment of Education Progress. The following are quotes from the article: "Youngsters in the United States continue their steady decline in scientific knowledge,. . ." ". . .shows a 4.7%drop in science achievement scoresof 17-year-old high schoalers since 1969."". . . ,that dedine was principally in the physical sciences." "Scientists involved in the survey trace part of the problem to the de-emphasisofscience education in U.S. schools. The number of students takine science wurst.* in high c