Educational Institutions in the Social Representation of Science in Undergraduate Students [Las instituciones educativas en la representación social de la ciencia en estudiantes de pregrado]

Abstract

Educational institutions are one of the main determining mediators in the social perception of science, important factor if one takes into account that students spend a great part of their lives in the schools. Research performed with undergraduate students of the University of Guadalajara shows that most of them refer to school (at the different educational levels) as the main source which have contributed to build their social representations of science that refers almost exclusively to so called "hard sciences". With in school, the image of the teacher is an important referent regarding the students likes or dislikesabout science. The information was gathered by interviews and some other exercises that included open and closed answers.