2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2. Students’ interest and attitudes towards science
2.2.3. Studies of students’ interest and attitudes towards science
The investigation of students’ interest and attitudes towards studying school science has been a substantive feature of the work of science education research community for the past 30-40 years. Thus what are the findings regarding students’ attitude and interest towards school science?
Attitudes towards school science
Research studies have identified a number of factors influencing students’ attitudes towards science in general. Most frequently, researchers have compared gender (girls versus boys), and/or age (primary, elementary, high school level) and/or schools’
(private versus state schools) or peer influences towards school science.
Several studies have focused on the relationship between students’ grade level and attitudes towards science. For example, Simpson and Oliver (1985, 1990) found that attitude towards school science becomes less positive from grades 6 through 10 and throughout each school year in those grades. Similarly, Yager & Yager (1985), Reid (2003) and Greenfield (1997) reported that positive attitudes towards school science declined, the longer students remain in school.
The relationship between peer and individual attitudes towards science has been investigated also (Breakwell & Beardsell, 1992; Talton & Simpson, 1985). The studies showed that the strength of the relationship increased during each school year
(from grades 6, 8 and 9); as the year progressed, individual attitudes became more like peer attitudes.
Documenting gender differences in attitudes towards science has long been a common focus of attitude measures. Overwhelmingly, the results have shown that boys’ attitudes are significantly more positive than girls’ attitudes towards school science (Francis, 2002; Stark, 1999; Ramsden, 1998; Havard, 1996; Hendley et al., 1996; Weinburgh, 1995; Colley et al., 1994; Breakwell & Beardsell, 1992; Simpson
& Oliver, 1990, 1985; Johnson, 1987; Yager & Bonnstetter, 1984).
These positive attitudes for boys have not always been evident when the populations have been subdivided further. For example, Greenfield (1997) found that elementary school (grade 4-6) girls liked science more than boys of a similar age. Whereas both groups’ interest levels declined during intermediate school (grades 7-8), boys’ interest rose again during high school (grades 9-12), but the interest of girls didn’t. Similarly, Weinburgh (1995) found that high-performance girls showed more positive attitudes than did boys at all levels.
Subject preference studies
Subject preferences of students have been an extensively investigated domain in science education. The typical measurement of attitudes towards school science can be obtain by asking pupils to rank their liking of school subjects, or just to name the most and the least favourite subject.
One of the earliest studies carried out by Whitfield (1980) indicated that physics and chemistry were two of the least popular science subjects, while biology and geography were the most popular for post 14 years old students. A more recent study by Colley et al., (1994) using a sample of 11-13 years-olds indicated that boys gave significantly higher rankings to physics education and science than girls, while girls gave significantly higher rankings to English. The investigation of attitudes of 4023 Key Stage 3 pupils (age 13-14) in the UK towards mathematics, English, science and technology carried out by Hendley et al., (1995) indicated that out of these four core subjects, science was the least popular. Boys expressed a more positive attitude
Lannes and his colleague’s study (2002) with 2302 Brazilian elementary (10-15 years old) and high school (15 –19 years old) students indicated that high school students preferred to study biology the most.
A study by Lamanauskas et al., (2004) investigated grades 11 and 12 Lithuanian and Latvian students’ interest towards natural science subjects. The results indicated that girls in both countries were more interested in biology and geography while boys in physics. The results showed also that chemistry was the least popular subject.
Going further, a study by Salta & Tzougraki (2004) investigated 11th grade Greek students’ attitudes regarding the difficulty, interest, and usefulness of the chemistry course. The results indicated that the significant difference between boys’ and girls’
attitudes towards the chemistry course were only at the level of difficulty; girls held a less positive attitude than boys. The results showed also that students believed the chemistry course was not useful for their future career, but recognized the importance of chemistry in their lives.
Students’ interest towards science topics
Most studies have investigated students’ interest towards all science topics (Dawson, 2000). Not many studies have been carried out to investigate students’ interest towards chemistry, physics, geography or biology as separate entities.
More recent studies have recognized that gender differences in interest cannot be simply categorized on the basis of physical science versus biology, and topics need to be looked at individually in terms of their perceived relevance to the respondents (Qualter, 1993). He suggested it was important to investigate boys’ and girls’ interests towards science topics separately.
One of the recent studies carried out by Reid (2003) investigated boys’ and girls’
interest towards 12 topics related with physics themes. The results showed that girls were much more drawn to those topics that were perceived to have high social relevance (for example ‘how to solve the world food problems’, ‘why we usually have a rainbow after rain’ or ‘why the use of X-rays can be harmful for the human
body’, etc.), while boys tended to be more attracted to those themes, which were perceived to have a high mechanical or practical relevance (like ‘how to understand the way electrical equipment works’ or ‘how can we increase the power of the car engine’).
More studies have investigated students’ interests towards biology topics (Gardner &
Tamir, 1989; Hong et al., 1998). For example, Hong et al., (1998) investigated Korean middle school students’ interests towards 64 biological topics. The results indicated that the highest interest domain was genetics and the lowest, plant morphology. A study by Gardner & Tamir (1989) indicated similar results - students showed greater interest towards genetics, while the lowest interest was towards plants.
The results from the SAS-study indicated that girls were more interested in learning about health, nutrition and most aspects of biology than boys (Sjøberg, 2002b). It showed also that the least popular things to learn about were related with content like plants and animals, while the most popular ones with spectacular or natural phenomena.