Attitudes of secondary school children to science, with special reference to differences in sex, age, ability and type of o-level course

Abstract

Related work was reviewed and fitted into a general scheme. A Thurstone attitude scale was constructed in a split-half form (19+19) to test attitudes to school science and science in general. Another, based on this, was constructed to test attitudes to school physics and physics in general. Reliabilities of both scales were 0.80 or more. The sample was 1066 pupils aged 11+ years 15+ years in grammar and modern schools. This sample was found to be significantly favourable to science and the grammar school sample was more favourable than the modern school sample. The younger pupils were more favourable in attitude than older pupils and boys were more favourable to science than girls. The samples were matched for proportions of each sex. Using the attitude to physics scale, 117 fourth-year pupils of four grammar schools which taught physics according to the Nuffield foundation scheme were compared with 117 fourth-year pupils from equivalent streams in four grammar schools which taught physics in a conventional manner. There was no evidence to support the hypothesis that the Nuffield scheme produced more favourable attitudes to physics than conventional approaches. There was a little evidence to support the view that a conventional approach produced more favourable attitudes to physics. Some evidence was presented to show a small, significant and positive correlation between attitude to science and attainment in science. A model for simulating responses to the scales was constructed and compared favourably with the results.