Science process skills and attitudes of preservice elementary teachers

Abstract

This study was conducted to describe the relationship between preservice elementary teachers' competency in science process skills and their attitudes toward science. The instrument selected to measure science process skills was the Test of Integrated Process Skills II (TIPSII). A revision of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (SAS) was used as a predictor of the subjects' attitudes toward science. The SAS consisted of six subscales also examined in the study. The hypothesis for the study stated that elementary preservice teachers who demonstrated a high competency in process skills would also indicate positive attitudes toward science. The data was collected while subjects were enrolled in an elementary math and science methods course during their first senior semester just before student teaching. Analysis of the data indicated a significant positive correlation between elementary preservice teachers' ability to perform science process skills and their attitudes toward science. Upon analyzing the data collected on the six subscales, a significant positive correlation was found between the TIPS II and the Confidence in Learning Science Scale and the Teacher Scale.

The relationship between science process skills and student attitude toward physics in senior secondary school in Aliero metropolis

“…In other words, when the students understand the science process skills, physics becomes more interesting to them, which increases the positive attitudes towards physics. This finding agrees with Downing and Filer's (1999) report that there was a significant relationship between science process skills among teachers and their attitudes toward science.…”

Pre-service Primary Teachers' Scientific Knowledge and Attitudes towards Science Learning and Their Influence on the Understanding of the Nature of Science / Znanje budućih nastavnika o znanosti, njihovi stavovi o učenju o znanosti i njihov utjecaj na raz

“…We also obtained a significant positive correlation between attitudes towards science learning and conceptual knowledge, which is consistent with the results of Milner-Bolotin, Antimirova, Noack, and Petrov's study (2011). We notice that there is a significant and positive correlation between attitudes and science process skills scores, which is similar to the one reported in the work of Downing and Filer (1999). On the other hand, a small but statistically significant correlation coefficient between concepts and SM (construction and validation of scientific models) was also found.…”

“…are essential to enhance students' attitudes to science learning. A positive and significant correlation between the ability of pre-service primary school teachers to develop and implement science process skills and their attitudes towards science was also found by Downing and Filer (1999).…”

Elementary education majors experience hands-on learning in introductory biology

“…Downing and colleagues (5) reported that as preservice elementary teachers improved their science process skills in science courses, their attitudes toward science significantly improved. Science courses that modeled various science process skills including "classifying, creating models, formulating hypotheses, generalizing, identifying variables, inferring, interpreting data, making decisions, manipulating materials, measuring, observing, predicting, recording data, replicating, and using numbers" assisted in building preservice teacher confidence in science (5). However, Douglass (4) reported on a study of the differences in attitude and ability among biology majors, nonmajors, and preservice teachers at Central Michigan University using a simple pretest/ posttest design.…”