Relationships between primary teachers' and students' attitudes towards science, and students' attitudes and achievement of science process skills
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Date
1991
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Abstract
This study explored the relationship between primary teachers' and students' attitudes to science, teachers' attitudes to science, and seven variables--gender, professional training, science workshop attendance, number of workshops attended, possession of an O'Level science subject certificate, use of SAPATT teacher guides, and student science workbooks--as well as the relationship between students' attitudes to science and their gender, and achievement on a test of science process skills. Three aspects of attitude to science were explored: 1) a general aspect defined as attitude to science in and out of school, 2) attitude to science outside of the school environment, and 3) attitude to teaching/learning science in the classroom. Data were gathered through questionnaires administered to a sample of 30 Standard 3 primary school teachers (20 female, 10 male) and 707 students (385 boys, 322 girls) in one educational division of Trinidad and Tobago. Five relationships were found to be significant; two between teachers' attitude to science generally, their attitude to teaching science, and their attainment of a science subject at O'Level. All three categories of students' attitudes to science were significantly correlated with their achievement on the process skill test. In all cases, the correlation between attitudes to teaching and learning science were stronger than for attitude to science outside the school environment, or attitude to science generally