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Meta-AnalysisThe term "meta-analysis" refers to the quantitative synthesis of research findings. Glass (1976) describes it thus:Meta-analysis refers to the analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies for the purpose of integrating the findings. (p. 3).The primary objective of any meta-analysis is to determine an overall effect size as a summary of related research. A secondary objective is to determine which factors contribute most to this effect size.While meta-analysis has a great many benefits to researchers and practitioners alike, there are some limitations as well. First, research findings, as typically reported, vary greatly. Measures of attitudes and other variables may be vaguely defined or unreliably measured. Such a state of affairs seriously distorts the results of any meta-analysis. Unreliable data are known to attenuate correlations, and relationships are consequently underestimated.Second, any search for research on a topic will lead to the immediately identifiable, published studies, while conference reports, dissertations, and other unpublished papers are more difficult to identify and obtain. When, for practical reasons, a research synthesis only includes published or oft-cited studies, a bias may be introduced.Third, some research reports are clearly not synthesizable. That is, the report fails to provide the basic, elemental descriptive statistics that allow the reader to assess effect sizes.These problems should not belie the effectiveness of meta-analysis but merely point out some limitations. Despite these difficulties, the results of meta-analysis can provide insights into the study of determinants of attitudes toward science, but like any single research study, should be interpreted with some caution. Defining Attitudes toward ScienceA cursory review of the topic "attitudes toward science" will reveal that many persons define attitudes in a variety of ways. Peterson and Carlson (1979) report in their review that there are over 30 studies a year on attitudes toward science; however, a closer look reveals much diversity in definition. The problem of measuring attitudes, alluded to by Pearl (1 973), begins to be solved by adequate definition. Fortunately, there has been extensive work on defining many aspects of science attitudes. These definitions are briefly presented as a background for the present review, which focuses on the attitudes of students toward the subject matter of science.

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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships of students, teachers, and learning environment variables to science attitude. Data were collected from fourth, seventh, and ninth grade students and their science teachers. Variables found to be consistently related to science attitude of classes at all grade levels were (a) sense of the importance of science, (b) student fatalism, (c) teacher quality, and (d) a host of learning environment variables. Implications for teaching practices and for future research were offered.

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