Elementary and Secondary Students' Perceptions Toward Science:Correlations with Gender, Ethnicity, Ability, Grade, and Science Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine student attitudes toward science and the correlations of the attitudes with the variables of ability, gender, ethnicity, grade, and science achievement. To measure the elementary and secondary students' perceptions toward science, a modified Osgood Semantic Differential instrument was used. The attitudes examined were important/unimportant (S1), valuable/worthless (S2), understandable/confusing (S3), exciting/boring (S4), and easy/hard (S5). An intercorrelational analysis showed significant relationships between ability and four of the five attitudes toward science. The students in the high ability group rated science as valuable, understandable, and easy; whereas, the students in the low ability group rated science as important. The attitude of exciting did not correlate with ability. Gender correlated with one attitude; males ranked science as a subject more exciting than females. Ethnicity did not correlate with any of the five attitudes. Grade significantly correlated with each attitude toward science; the grade comparisons as measured by the Scheffe test indicated that students enrolled in grades four, five, and six perceived science more positively than secondary students. With multiple correlation, science achievement correlated with attitude toward science.

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