The development and application of a scale for measuring scientific attitudes

The effect of peer teaching on concept formation and attitude change of student teachers

“…(1) rationality, (2) curiosity, (3) open-mindedness, (4) aversion to superstitions, ( 5 ) objectivity-intellectual honesty, and (6) suspended judgement. The reliability coefficients of the instrument ranged from 0.55 to 0.74 and it compared well with the reliability of the Science Attitude Scale constructed by Brandyberry which ranged between 0.50 and 0.78 (Billeh and Zakhariades, 1975). The scoring of responses was based on a Thurstone-type scale.…”

“…One instrument, the Scientific Attitude Scale (SAS), was devised by Billeh and Zakhariades (1975) to measure six components of scientific attitude which included:…”

The dimensionality of attitude scales: a widely misunderstood idea

“…For example, Selmes (1971) set out to measure students' attitudes to science and scientists, with a scale including these items: 'The cold, dispassionate scientist is a mythical animal', 'Science is a fixed and clearly defined body of knowledge', and 'There is no such thing as unprejudiced observation; every act of observation we make is biased'. Downloaded by [Otto-von-Guericke-Universitaet Magdeburg] at 03:32 20 October 2014 Billeh and Zakhariades (1975) constructed a similar instrument to measure students' scientific attitudes, with items reflecting such constructs as 'rationality', 'curiosity', 'open-mindedness' and 'aversion to superstition'. (The authors claim to have constructed a Thurstone-type instrument, yet used summated-ratings procedures, and devised a scoring formula of questionable validity, but that is not the issue here.)…”

Selection and validation of attitude scales for curriculum evaluation

“…In the literature devoted to the discussion of attitude toward science, it is not always clear exactly what meaning the reader should place on the term "attitude toward science." Common usages of this term range from satisfaction in learning science at school in Fisher's instrument [6], to adoption of such attributes as open-mindedness or suspended judgment as measured in Billeh and Zakhariades' scale [7], and to attitudes to scientists as people as measured by some of Allen's items [8]. Furthermore, Jungwirth [9] has noted that the science education literature displays some confusion over whether aims related to understanding the nature of science are correctly classified as attitudes toward science or as cognitive outcomes.…”