Informal Science Experience, Attitudes, Future Interest in Science, and Gender of High‐Ability Students: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The present study examined specific science-related attitudes, informal science-related experiences, future interest in science, and gender of young high-ability students. The sample consisted of 111 highability students between the ages of 9 and 13. Students completed the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), the Science Experience Survey, and the Course Selection Sheet. Two regression models were developed to predict number of physical science and life science courses selected. In the first model, gender, TOSRA subscale Career Interest in Science, and informal physical science related experience predicted 42% of the variance related to number of physical science courses selected. The second model (R2 = .24) predicted number of life science courses based on informal life science related experience, informal physical science related experience, and TOSRA subscale Enjoyment of Science Lessons. Recommendations were made recognizing differences regarding gender and ability level. This study was influenced by two theoretical perspectives: (a) Anne Roe's (1952) study, A Psychologist Examines 64 Eminent Scientists, which attempts to identify thelife experiences related to scientists' career choices, and (b) sociocultural theory, which strives to

A Cross-National Study of Secondary Science Classroom Environments in Australia and Indonesia

“…This is a major advantage that TOSRA has over some other science attitude tests which yield only a single overall score rather than a separate score for a number of distinct attitudinal measures. In addition to studies that have examined the validity of the TOSRA (Kalili 1987;Schibeci and McGaw 1981), the TOSRA has been used to evaluate innovations (Lott 2002), to compare the attitudes of different groups of students (White and Richardson 1993;Joyce and Farenga 1999) and to explore associations between the learning environment and students' attitudes (Fraser and Butts 1982;Fraser and Fisher 1982;Wong and Fraser 1996). For the purpose of our study, three of the seven scales were selected as being the most salient: Normality of Scientists, Attitude to Scientific Inquiry and Career Interest in Science.…”

Learning Environment, Attitudes and Achievement among Middle-school Science Students Using Inquiry-based Laboratory Activities

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“…The seven scales are called Social Implications of Science, Normality of Scientists, Attitude to Scientific Inquiry, Adoption of Scientific Attitudes, Enjoyment of Science Lessons, Leisure Interest in Science, and Career Interest in Science. The TOSRA has been widely used in science education research (e.g., Joyce & Farenga, 1999;Lang, Wong, & Fraser, 2005;Smist, Archambault, & Owen, 1994;White & Richardson, 1993).…”