How do engineering attitudes vary by gender and motivation? Attractiveness of outreach science exhibitions in four countries

Abstract

Outreach activities, like mobile science exhibitions, give opportunities to hands-on experiences in an attractive learning environment. We analysed attitudes, motivation and learning during a science exhibition visit, their relations to gender and future educational plans in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Belgium (N = 1210 sixth-graders). Pupils' performance in a knowledge test improved after the visit. Autonomous motivation and attitudes towards science predicted situation motivation awakened in the science exhibition. Interestingly, the scientist attitude and the societal attitude were clearly separate dimensions. The third dimension was manifested in the engineering attitude typical for boys, who were keener on working with appliances, designing computer games and animations. Scientist and societal attitudes correlated positively and engineering attitude correlated negatively with the future educational plans of choosing the academic track in secondary education. The societal perspective on science was connected to above average achievement. In the follow-up test, these attitudes showed to be quite stable.

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