UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' BIOTECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

Biotechnology has made remarkable progress in recent years, and caused a revolution in different sciences. It is obvious, that the advance of modern biotechnology will have a great influence on the world. On the other hand, some ethical problems have emerged. The arguments about ethical and social impacts of biotechnology made clear that not only getting basic knowledge about biotechnology and genetic engineering, also ethical and social issues must be thought in the schools, because the level of knowledge and the attitudes of new generation is very important for the society, and for the future of our world. It is obvious, that students should know about modern biotechnologies more. So, in this study it is tried to determine the university students’ knowledge towards biotech-nology. This research is carried out in January, 2008. Sample was made by students of two universities of Lithuania in total 287 respondents. In sample students of biological and non biological programs are selected. Our research was conducted in educational faculties mainly where a strong female bias in Lithuania historically exists, it was impossible to adjust the female to male ratio more accurately. The age of students ranged from 18 to 29 years (M = 20.41 years, SD = 1.45). A 16-item Likert-type Biotech-nology Knowledge Questionnaire (BKQ) was used to examine students’ knowledge in biotechnology. The results have shown that students do not have sufficient knowledge about biotechnology. Knowledge of students in the field of biotechnologies is very weak and inconsistent. Knowledge mismatch to modern achievements of a science in the given area. The answers given to the statements do not differ significantly between the biology students and the students who do not take any biology courses (non-biology programms). This result shows that education at the university level does not focus enough on biotechnology and its implications. In the opinion of researchers university students need to learn more facts and issues related to modern biotechnology. Also we need to find some approaches to improve non-biology students knowledge about biotechnology. Key words: biotechnology, knowledge, university students.