BIOLOGY CONTENT AND CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE AS PREDICTORS OF CAREER ASPIRATIONS

In Slovenia, as in many other countries, interest in seeking careers in science, technology and engineering-related disciplines is low, which can be recognized as a problem. The influence of general interest in biology, the content, and teaching of Biology in 9-year basic school (age 14 -15) and general upper-secondary schools (age 15 – 18) on the career aspirations of students was explored. Based on structural models built on the responses of 522 general upper secondary school students from Slovenia, it was revealed that the corresponding constructs (1) The content of Biological disciplines; (2) The Biology content taught in 9-year basic school; (3) The Biology content taught in general upper secondary school; (4) The teaching of lower secondary school Biology; and (5) The teaching of general upper secondary school Biology--are only weak predictors, if at all, of career aspirations in 15 different career streams. The greatest predictive power is a general interest in biological topics. However, the influence of the content of school curricula and corresponding teaching is a weak and even negative predictor of career aspirations in some cases. Keywords: biology teaching, career aspirations, lower secondary school Biology, SEM analysis, upper secondary school Biology.