Including Students' Voices as Engagement With Curriculum: Perspectives From a Secondary Biology Course

High school students' views regarding the best ways to adapt biology studies to fit their interests were explored using 87 written questionnaires containing closed-ended and open-ended questions. The closed-ended questionnaires indicated that the participants are very positive regarding their experience as biology learners and highly interested in what they learn. However, when given the opportunity to voice their opinions in the open-ended questions they explicitly and implicitly indicated a gap between their interests and the requirements of the curriculum. Over half gave priority to teaching to the test over their own interests. Students offered a variety of channels for eliciting and answering their questions; many of those suggestions reflect scholars' ideas and could easily be implemented in class. We conclude that students could become attentive and resourceful partners for dialogue about what to teach and how to teach science.