attitudes toward science
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2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 599-608
Author(s):  
Susilawati*, Nurfina ◽  
Nurfina Aznam ◽  
Paidi Paidi

<p style="text-align: justify;">It should be noted that learning outcomes are not students’ only achievement; attitude is also the main output in learning. This research explores students’ attitudes toward science learning based on gender and the grade level of schools in Aceh, Indonesia. The participants are 1,023 students from the sixth grade of primary schools and the eighth grade of secondary schools. The total sample includes 16 schools spread across the province. The data have been collected using TOSRA. By using the Likert scale, this questionnaire is useful for obtaining descriptions of the students’ attitudes and assigning scores for a certain group of participants. Based on gender, the results show females reflect more positive attitudes toward science than male students do. According to the grade level of the schools, the data reflect the equality of students’ attitudes toward science between primary and secondary schools. Nevertheless, when primary school students enter secondary school, the majority of students enjoy learning science less. This fact is meaningful feedback for science teachers. This result supports the scholars seeking ways to avoid the gender gap in learning activities. Pedagogical implications are also discussed.</p>


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261648
Author(s):  
Józef Maciuszek ◽  
Mateusz Polak ◽  
Katarzyna Stasiuk ◽  
Dariusz Doliński

Vaccine rejection is a problem severely impacting the global society, especially considering the COVID-19 outbreak. The need to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying the active involvement of the pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine movements is therefore very important both from a theoretical and practical perspective. This paper investigates the group identities of people with positive and negative attitudes towards vaccination, and their attitudes toward general science. A targeted sample study of 192 pro-vaccine and 156 anti-vaccine group members showed that the group identity of pro-vaccine individuals is higher than of anti-vaccine individuals. and that both pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine individuals had a positive attitude toward science. Results are discussed in context of the heterogeneity of motivations causing vaccine rejection and the relation between active involvement in online discussion and group identity.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sovansophal Kao

PurposeThis study aimed to examine the effects of Cambodia's New Generation Schools (NGS), as compared to their traditional counterparts, in enhancing the seven constructs: (1) science and math achievement, (2) science and math self-efficacy, (3) science and math outcome expectations, (4) attitudes toward science, (5) interactive science and math lessons, (6) support from science and math teachers and (7) encouragement and support in science from family.Design/methodology/approachThe two observations data was collected using self-rated questionnaire from 301 11th graders from five upper secondary schools located in three provinces of Cambodia. Independent sample t-test, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and dependent sample t-test were used to analyze the repeated measures data.FindingsThe study revealed that students from the NGS exhibited statistically higher scores for most constructs, especially for attitudes toward science. However, when controlling for the differences in the first observation data, the significant effects of the three constructs have been neutralized. Moreover, though there was an increase in science activities outside school, there was a negative trajectory in the other two sub-constructs of attitudes toward science and support from science and math teachers, both in NGS and traditional schools.Practical implicationsThese findings point some practical implications for enhancing the effectiveness of the two school types and further research.Originality/valueThere is heavy investment in new form of schools across the world to enhance students' learning and academic achievement in science and math in K-12 and to promote their interest in STEM in higher education. However, there is little document on the effectiveness of this new form of school, particularly in the Cambodian context.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitra Christidou ◽  
Sofia Papavlasopoulou ◽  
Michail Giannakos

Purpose Governments and organizations worldwide are concerned over the declining number of young people choosing to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), especially after the age of 16. Research has foregrounded that students with positive attitudes toward science are more likely to find it relevant and aspire to a science career. This study aims to understand the factors shaping students’ attitudes as these are pivotal in promoting science learning. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the framework of science capital to understand what shapes young people’s engagement with or resistance to science. The authors conducted four Computational Thinking making-based workshops with 106 children aged 15–16 years, of which 58 filled in a questionnaire and 22 were interviewed. Statistical and content analyses were performed respectively. Findings The results indicate that children who are more exposed to science-related activities and contexts are more likely to have higher self-efficacy, and that those with higher prior coding experience scored higher in their self-efficacy and science capital. Six themes emerged from the content analysis, highlighting the diverse factors shaping students’ attitudes, such as teaching methods, stereotypes and the degree of difficulty encountered while engaging with science in and out of school. Originality/value By combining qualitative and quantitative methods with the use of science capital, the authors found a number of aspects of the school experience that shape students’ attitudes to science learning in and out of school, as well as their science career aspirations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-148
Author(s):  
Gonca Kececi ◽  
◽  
Pelin Yildirim ◽  
Fikriye Kirbag Zengin ◽  
◽  
...  

In this research, the effects of science education using mobile augmented reality (MAR) application on students’ attitudes toward science, technology, and their academic achievement were determined against two socioeconomic levels. The parallel pattern mixed method was used in the study. The research was carried out with 143 sixth-grade students from two schools with different socioeconomic levels in Turkey. The MAR application was used with the experimental groups. Quantitative data were collected through the “Science and Technology Attitude Scale” and “Systems Achievement Test.” According to the ANCOVA results, it was observed that the MAR application used in the processing of the lessons was effective in improving the academic achievement levels of the students but not in attitudes toward science and technology. Results showed that the socioeconomic situation played an active role on the academic achievement of students but did not play an effective role on science and technology attitudes. The results of this research are important in determining the differences between students at different socioeconomic levels experiencing technology-supported systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-158
Author(s):  
Menşure Alkış Küçükaydın ◽  

Science Education International ¦ Volume 32 ¦ Issue 2 149 ORIGINAL ARTICLE INTRODUCTION Science classes in elementary schools should seek to enable students to engage in scientific thinking, encourage them to perform work on basic sciences, and positively develop their attitudes toward science classes with a positive educational environment. Studies related to both the healthy construction of classroom environments and attitudes have a long history (Gardner, 1975; Ma and Bateson, 1999; Toma et al., 2019; Zhang and Campbell, 2011). Wang and Berlin (2010) indicated that attitudes toward science are effective factors in attaining goals of science education. In addition, they reported that these factors affect student motivation. According to Zhang and Campbell (2011), scientific attitudes of students also direct their interest in lessons and simultaneously affect their long-term success in courses. Attitude, as an affective domain of learning, is an element affecting learning outputs of students in science courses (Ministry of National Education, 2018). Accordingly, the importance of performing attitude studies emerges with regard to obtaining positive outputs on scientific attitude. Individuals with scientific attitudes have inquisitive and argumentative characteristics; therefore, they do not fall prey to preconceptions or dogmatic belief systems. Individuals with positive scientific attitudes are more willing to identify and solve the problems in their surroundings, as well as being willing to search for solutions. In addition, while scientific attitudes may help an individual to be successful, they also support his or her continual improvement by affecting his or her thinking (Demirbaş and Yağbasan, 2006). In this study, the effect of a different variable on attitude was examined by focusing on the relationship between scientific attitudes and intellectual risk-taking behaviors of elementary school students. Theoretical Background While an individual’s attitude cannot always be observed precisely, it largely directs love, hate, and the ideas of the individual (Morgan, 2005). Munby (1980) examined scientific attitudes in four categories as attitudes toward school science, attitudes toward science careers, attitudes toward science itself, and attitudes toward specific issues in science. This examination, indeed, emphasizes the importance of attitudes in terms of long-term learning and indifference toward science or the development of deep understandings (Hong and Lin, 2011). Gardner (1975), however, divided such attitudes into two, as attitudes toward science and scientific attitudes. Moreover, the scientific attitudes included within the context of this study were expressed as a mixture of the will to know and understand, inquiring attitudes, data collection and sense-making, and evaluation and interpretation of results (Education In this study, the relationship between scientific attitudes and intellectual risk-taking behaviors of fourth-grade students in elementary school in Turkey was examined. A total of 184 students participated in the study, which was conducted based on a survey model. For data collection, the “Scientific Attitude Inventory” and the “Intellectual Risk-Taking and Perceptions About Its Predictors Scale in Science Education” were utilized. Descriptive statistical analyses and t-test, ANOVA, simple linear regression, and multiple regression analyses were utilized for the analysis of the data. As a result of this data analysis, it was observed that these elementary school students have scientific attitudes at the “not sure” level and have intellectual risk-taking behaviors at the “mostly correct” level. Gender was not observed to have an effect on scientific attitude; however, it was effective on intellectual risk-taking behavior. In addition, the analysis results demonstrated that there is a meaningful difference between intellectual risk-taking behaviors of students and the educational levels of their fathers. Moreover, when the relations between other pairs of variables were examined, the variables of intellectual risk-taking, gender, educational level of the mother, and educational level of the father together had low-level but meaningful relations with the scientific attitudes of elementary school students. It was indicated that teachers will contribute to students’ adoption of positive scientific attitudes by introducing the lives and studies of scientists, and it was suggested that the effect of changes in educational patterns in classroom environments be examined through experimental studies on intellectual risk-taking behaviors of students. With the results obtained from this study, more light can be shed on what should be done to support students’ intellectual risk-taking behaviors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-212
Author(s):  
Emine Sena Toprak Yallıhep ◽  
Hakan Akcay ◽  
Hasan Ozgur Kapici

Developing students’ attitudes toward science is an important issue because societies need individuals who can contribute to scientific and technological developments. That’s why using various and different instructional tools in science education may have an impact on students’ attitudes towards science positively. Within this respect, the goal of the study is to investigate the effects of serious games on primary school students’ (fifth-grade) science achievement related to the topic of light and sound, and attitudes towards science. A quasi-experimental research design was used in the study. Fifth-grade students from two different classes were the participants in the current study. The data was gathered by the science achievement test and the attitude scale. The findings revealed that whereas students in the experimental group, who were taught by serious games, developed their attitudes towards science significantly positive, their counterparts did not. There was no significant effect of serious game on students’ achievement. This result showed that serious games as a different instructional tool may have crucial impacts on primary students’ attitudes toward science.


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