Perception and Attitudes towards Science Xjenza - The Malta Council for Science & Technology

Feb 2015

The Malta Council for Science & Technology Villa Bighi, Kalkara Malta KKR 1320

A MISCO INTERNATIONAL REPORT

Contents TABLE OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ 4 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 6 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................... 7 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 8 CONFIDENTIALITY .............................................................................................................. 9 STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................................................. 9 OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 11 INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................... 14 DEMOGRAPHICS ........................................................................................................... 14 INTEREST IN SCIENCE.................................................................................................. 19 SEARCHING FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-RELATED INFORMATION ............. 31 AWARENESS AND PARTICIPATION AT SCIENCE-RELATED EVENTS....................... 41 SCIENCE AND THE GOVERNMENT .............................................................................. 48 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 54 RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................................................................... 57 ANNEX I – The Questionnaire ............................................................................................. 58

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TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 - Gender .................................................................................................................................. 14 Figure 2 - Age ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Figure 3 - Level of Education ................................................................................................................ 15 Figure 4 - Occupation ........................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 5 - Socioeconomic Class............................................................................................................. 16 Figure 6 - Working in the science and technology industry ................................................................. 17 Figure 7 - Region ................................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 8 - Access to internet ................................................................................................................. 18 Figure 9 - Interest in Science ................................................................................................................ 20 Figure 10 - Interest in area of science analysed by gender .................................................................. 23 Figure 11 - Interest in area of science analysed by age........................................................................ 24 Figure 12 - How well informed do you feel you are about science? .................................................... 26 Figure 13 - Perception of amount of information received ana