SCIENCE ANXIETY AS A PREDICTOR OF STUDENTS PREFERRED SUBJECT IN THE POST JUNIOR SECONDARY CLASSROOM

The world, including Nigeria, is increasingly seeking to improve its educational system to attain the desired scientific-driven society. Thus, education is geared towards science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To this effect, Nigeria is investing in science-based education, and the students are encouraged to embrace science in their educational pursuits. Based on this, the present study examined students subject preference in the post junior secondary classroom based on science anxiety. One hundred and sixty-six students drawn from public and private secondary schools in the Kogi State participated in the study. Their level of science anxiety was assessed with the Science Anxiety Scale (Oludipe & Oludipe, 2019). The simple regression analysis performed on the data revealed that science anxiety statistically significantly predicted the respondents subject preference. Thus, the study concludes that science anxiety is a positive determinant of students choice of subject in the secondary school classroom.

An Investigation of Secondary School Students’ Anxiety and Motivation Levels towards Science Course in Terms of Some Variables

This work aims at studying the anxiety and motivation levels of secondary school students towards science course depending on gender, class levels, and their parents’ level of education. In addition, it was aimed to examine the relationship between students' anxiety, motivation, and academic achievement towards science course. The study relies on a relational scannig model within the context of the general scannig model. The research sample consist of 629 students who continue their education at public secondary school in Kastamonu Province, Turkey, in the 2019-2020 academic year. Anxiety Scale for Science Course, Motivation Scale for Science Learning, Personal Information Form, and science grade for the end of the first semester were used as data collection tools in the research. The data obtained from the research were analyzed using the SPSS 22 program. As a result of this study, it is found out that the secondary school students' science anxiety levels were incredibly low but, their motivation levels towards science course were high. Also, it was observed that there was a significant relationship between students’ science anxiety, science motivation and academic achievement. As to gender, it was determined that there was no significant difference between students' anxiety towards science course, and a significant difference between motivation towards science course. In addition, it was determined that students' anxiety and motivation towards science course differ significantly depending on class levels and their parents’ level of education.

The Abbreviated Science Anxiety Scale: Psychometric properties, gender differences and associations with test anxiety, general anxiety and science achievement

Science anxiety refers to students’ negative emotions about learning science. Across two studies, we investigated the psychometric properties of the newly developed Abbreviated Science Anxiety Scale (ASAS), which was adapted from the modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (m-AMAS) (Carey E., 2017). Using a sample of students in grades 7 to 10 (N = 710), Study 1 reported a two-factor structure of the ASAS (learning science anxiety and science evaluation anxiety) and negative associations between the ASAS factors and science achievement. Study 2 replicated this two-factor model in students in grades 11 and 12 (N = 362) and found that students in the “Arts” track were more anxious about science than those in “Sciences” track. Both studies consistently reported positive inter-correlations between the ASAS factors, with good internal reliabilities and modest meaningful associations with test anxiety and general anxiety, suggesting that science anxiety might be a distinct construct. Further, female students had higher science anxiety (especially science evaluation anxiety) than male students, even when test anxiety and general anxiety were considered in models. In summary, the ASAS is a brief, valid, and reliable instrument that can be used to guide and improve science education.

An Investigation into Anxiety about the Science Lesson Through a Mixed Model

This study was conducted with a total of 158 students from 6th, 7th and 8th grades in two different secondary schools located in Siirt in the academic year of 2020-2021 to examine students’ anxiety about the science lesson in terms of various variables and to determine the reasons for science anxiety. The study was conducted on the basis of a mixed design. While quantitative data were collected using the “Science Anxiety Scale (SAS)” and qualitative data were collected using the “Anxiety Form”. Through the SAS, the anxiety levels of the students were determined and the relationship between the scale anxiety score and gender, grade levels, income levels and type of school was examined. The data collected by the SAS were analysed using the SPSS 26 package program. The content analysis of the data collected with the anxiety form was carried out. It was determined in the quantitative part of the research that there is no significant relationship between science anxiety and gender, 6th-grade students have higher science anxiety in the environmental sub-dimension compared to 7th and 8th-grades, and there is a significant relationship between family income level and type of school and anxiety scores, science anxiety decreased as the income level increased, and students studying at private school had less science anxiety. Based on the qualitative data of the study, anxieties of the study are mainly related to the science lesson, notably related to the exam, rote learning, hardness of lessons, the anxiety of falling behind in the class, and the homework. However, while some students have anxiety about the attitude and questions of teachers, others are instinctively anxious about giving wrong or no answers arising from attitudes and morale. While 3% of the students are anxious about everything, 14.9% are anxious about nothing. Their responses to the items of the questionnaire and the anxiety form are close in proportion, so it has been concluded that the quantitative and qualitative data of the study support each other.

IDENTIFYING THE CONNECT BETWEEN STUDENTS’ SCIENCE ANXIETY LEVELS AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE

This study aims to explore the effect of an affective variable 'science anxiety' on students' achievement in science subject. By affective we refer to the learners' affect such as emotions, feelings, moods and attitudes involved in teaching-learning process. The chosen sample comprised of 1134 students (532 boys and 602 girls) of class X from 34 schools of Aizawl district of Mizoram. An adapted version of 'Science Anxiety Questionnaire' was used with some indigenous modifications to assess the level of science anxiety amongst the sample. The science anxiety scores of students were correlated with their science achievement scores obtained in class X board examination. Past researches have recognized 'science anxiety' as a negative affect responsible for student's underperformance in science. However, in the present finding the correlation coefficient value was found to be 0.1 indicating a very low but statistically significant positive relationship. This suggested that a minimum threshold level of science anxiety positively becomes the achievement in science. Anxiety levels were found to differ significantly between high and low science achievers, interestingly the high achievers (upper 27%) were found to be more science anxious suggesting that the very low positive relationship between the science anxiety and science achievement of students was contributed more from the high achievers. The findings revealed a significant difference between science anxiety levels of boys and girls, the latter being more science anxious. The chi-square analysis also supported that science anxiety is not independent of gender. KEYWORDS: Achievement in Science, Affect and Science, Science Anxiety, Secondary School Students

Connecting Science with Story Tale: How Sainsmatika Story Tale Book Decrease Science Anxiety of 4th Graders Student

This study investigating the effectiveness of using Sainsmatika story tale book towards student science anxiety. The study were an experimental research with pretest-posttest control-group design, involving 122 fourth-grade students in one of the district in Indonesia. Characteristically, this research employs quantitative data which were collected from the questionnaire results regarding science anxiety. The data were analyzed using statistical methods to calculate the values and determine the frequency as well as the mean of pretest and posttest scores in control and experimental classes. To determine the effectiveness of using fairytale books to reduce students’ science anxiety, the one-way analysis of ANOVA was used with a significant difference at the level of Sig < 0.05. The results of this study reveal that the use of sainsmatika-based fairytale books is effective to reduce science anxiety of the fourth-grade students with significancy 0.00 (<0.05).

Forma mentis networks quantify crucial differences in STEM perception between students and experts

In order to investigate the stances of high school students and researchers toward STEM subjects, we introduce the methodology of forma mentis networks -- free association networks enriched with affective attributes that represent how people conceptually perceive and structure their stance toward a given topic. In this paper, we constructed separate forma mentis networks for ($N_s=159$) Italian high school students and ($N_r=59$) interdisciplinary professionals and researchers in order to investigate how these groups differed in their mental associations and emotional perceptions of STEM subjects. At the global scale, STEM concepts occupied central positions in students' forma mentis network, suggesting that students understood the general importance of such topics in science. At a microscopic scale, although the concept of "science'' was positively perceived in both the students' and professionals' forma mentis networks, students not only perceived STEM concepts such as "physics'' and "mathematics'' as negative but also associated them with other negative STEM-related concepts. This aura of negative emotional associations towards quantitative STEM subjects was absent in professionals. Cross-validation with external datasets suggested that the negative emotional aura in the forma mentis network of students might be attributed to science anxiety. Further consideration of the semantic associates of maths and physics indicated that their negative aura may originate from a negative, dry perception of the technical methodology and quantitative tools frequently taught in these subjects (e.g., "function'', "integral'').Whereas students associated mathematics and physics with quantitative tools, professionals linked the same disciplines to more general and creative aspects of science and displayed a positive stance towards these concepts. Overall, our results underline the crucial importance of emphasising nontechnical and applied aspects in the teaching of quantitative disciplines, highlighting the necessity of establishing interdisciplinary links between science, the complexity of the real-world and creativity in order to enhance the impact of STEM education and outreach activities.

THE EFFECT OF FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS’ SCIENCE ANXIETY ON METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS

Successful students who do not experience anxiety can participate in future progress both at local and international levels. It is necessary to identify students’ anxiety and to enhance research into the effect of anxiety on the cognitive burden of science, which is one of the top priorities for future progress. Thus, the main aim of this research was to explore the effect of students’ science anxiety on metacognitive awareness. The research, therefore, adopts a relational survey model and uses a random selection sampling method. The sample consisted of 346 students with an equal number of males and females. To explore the effect of fifth-grade students’ science anxiety on metacognitive awareness, data were collected by means of a prepared three-part sample form. The first part of the form collected data about gender, classroom size and school campus. The second part contained an anxiety scale for science and technology lessons and the last part used a metacognitive awareness scale. The research results showed that gender is not an important factor for anxiety or metacognitive awareness, but classroom size has an important effect on science anxiety. Nonetheless, students’ science anxiety is a significant predictor of their metacognitive awareness. Keywords: metacognitive awareness, relational survey model, science anxiety.