Changes in Student Attitudes Regarding Science When Taught by Teachers Without Experiences With a Model Professional Development Program

Abstract

This study focuses on two main issues concerning changes in student attitudes toward science study and their perceptions of its usefulness in their lives. Information has been gathered concerning how student attitudes toward science have changed for teachers and schools not involved with any funded professional development project. Pretesting and posttesting were administered with such “control” groups at the same intervals corresponding with the data collected from students with teachers enrolled in five funded Professional Development projects over the 1981–2008 interim. The grade levels used by the National Assessment of Education Progress in their 1977 assessment of science were used; it focused on students in grades 3, 7, and 11. The results indicate a steady decline in student positive attitudes concerning their science study as grade levels increase. Conversely, the student perceptions of the usefulness of their science study as related to daily living, further science study, and for potential careers remained much the same over the 30‐year interim is a second focus. Generally, results indicate that traditional teaching and major use of textbooks cause increasingly negative student attitudes about science while not producing major changes in their perceptions of its usefulness in their lives.

Elementary School Students’ Attitude toward Science and Related Variables

“…Factors such as science achievement, gender difference, student-student and student-teacher interaction and the classroom learning environment all have an effect on the attitude toward science (Ali, Yager, Hacieminoglu & Caliskan, 2013). The results of these studies indicate that there is a relationship between attitude towards science and science achievement (Arisoy, 2007;Freedman 1997).…”

The Effect of Integrative STEM Instruction on Elementary Students’ Attitudes toward Science

“…More specifically, girls enjoy less science lessons (Denessen, Vos, Hasselman, & Louws, 2015) and boys have more aspiration in science than girls (DeWitt & Archer, 2015). Also, it seems that as grade level increase, favourable attitudes toward science decrease drastically (Ali et al, 2013;Said, Summers, Abd-El-Khalick, & Wang, 2016).…”

“…Thus, unfavourable attitudes seem to be related to traditional science teaching approaches (Oh & Yager, 2004) and rote learning (Hacieminoglu, 2016). In addition to the methodological factor, other aspects seem to impact students' attitudes, such as academic results, gender, and grade level (Ali et al, 2013). In relation to the first aspect, Caleon and Subramaniam (2008) indicate that students with low performance have shown a more unfavourable attitude towards science in comparison with high achievers.…”

“…The reasons for this constant reduction have been previously investigated (e.g. Ali, Yager, Hacieminoglu & Caliskan, 2013;Jones, Howe & Rua, 2000;Osborne, Simon & Collins, 2003). Evidence seem to show a failure in reaching the proposal of science education reform; as Osborne and Dillon (2008) pointed out, "The challenge therefore, is to re-imagine science education (…) for the modern world and how it can meet the needs of all students."…”

Successes with Reversing the Negative Student Attitudes Developed in Typical Biology Classes for 8th and 10th Grade Students

“…Student attitudes are factors which affect learning in school science as well as being an outcome of instruction and an important indicator of science learning (Lester, Garofalo & Kroll, 1989). Developing positive attitudes toward science regardless of individual differences has been one of the purposes of science education for many researchers (Arısoy, 2007;Ali, Yager, Hacieminoglu, & Caliskan, 2013;Azizoğlu & Cetin, 2009). To indicate science teaching and its' effect on attitude focuses on the degree students are positive about their experiences with science.…”