Teachers' perception of biotechnology and its implications on science curriculum development

In Hong Kong, existed is an urgent need of local curriculum reform to include the basic topics of biotechnology in the biology syllabus. Yet, how to promote biotechnology education in Hong Kong secondary schools remains an empirical question. As biology teachers are major stakeholders, the researchers therefore conducted a study to collect relevant information about the teachers’ knowledge of and attitude towards the practice of biotechnology, as well as their view on the appropriateness of biotechnology topics to be taught in secondary schools. The key findings include, firstly, the teachers tended to accept those biotechnological appli-cations that are beneficial to mankind, while having reservation towards animal duplication and bioethical issues. Secondly, the longer the training time in biotechnology the teachers had, the more confidence they had in their possession of the subject knowledge of biotechnology to effectively teach this subject. And thirdly, the teachers’ knowledge base in the subject and the pedagogical content knowledge are inadequate, reflecting the needs for further training in both domains. Copyright © 2002 Hong Kong Institute of Education.