Which science topics are most interesting for 15 year old students? Do boys and girls think differently about science and its role in society? Attitudes towards science and technology are regarded as important for both their individual perspectives and for the future of economic development as a whole. In 2000 the European Union agreed on five educational objectives in order to transform Europe into "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world". One was to significantly “increase the number of tertiary graduates in Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST), with a simultaneous decrease in the gender imbalance”. This is only feasible if the school systems in all European countries succeed in increasing the interest of students in mathematics and science - especially of female students. One can differentiate between general interest (e.g. in technology) and contextual interest (e.g. in using wind energy to provide electricity). Both are explored with two different methods in the framework of the international OECD-study PISA. In this contribution the results are compared and discussed in relation to other recent investigations of students’ interests in science (like e.g. the international ROSE-study).

PISA 2006 - apart from assessing students’ achievements - also gathered data on attitudes towards science. Two kinds of “attitudinal items” were embedded in the PISA 2006 science achievement tests. The students had to answer (a) whether or not they wanted to know more about the contexts of some of the test items, e.g. acid rain or genetic engineering, or (b) whether they supported scientific research about these topics. On the other hand a questionnaire was used to explore students’ general interests in different fields of science. A thorough discussion of some PISA items from a didactical point of view revealed conceptual differences between what is determined as interest with the two methods used.

An analysis of the answers of about 5000 Austrian students to the “attitudinal items” showed an equally high interest in biological (57%) and physical topics (57%) as well as in epistemological topics (56%). In the PISA-questionnaires a comparatively small proportion of students expressed general interest in physics (49%) or in scientific explanations (34%). Moreover, the PISA questionnaire confirmed results from earlier studies about a significant gender gap: in Austria the proportion of boys expressing interest in physics is larger by 26% than that of girls; whereas 18% more girls than boys assert that they are interested in biology. The answers to the “attitudinal items” showed much smaller differences (less than 6%). A comparative analysis of both investigations indicates that the results are highly dependent on the methods used, and that the interest of students, especially girls, in relevant and contextually meaningful scientific topics is considerably greater than expected.