Attitudes toward teaching and taking science: A correlation between teachers and students.

Abstract

This study represents a cross-sectional, retrospective longitudinal investigation of secondary student attitudes toward science and upper elementary teacher attitudes toward teaching science within a suburban public school system. The main hypothesis tested was whether the teachers' attitudes toward teaching science significantly influenced the students' subsequent attitudes toward science at the secondary level. Sixth, ninth, and twelfth grade students completed survey instruments covering their attitudes toward science and their perceptions of their upper elementary science experiences. The seniors (two groups--one randomly selected and one top science students) completed a third questionnaire which covered out-of-school science influences. The teacher sample was comprised of those teachers identified by all surveyed students. These teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire which delved into their attitudes toward teaching science. Using correlational comparisons, analyses of variance, and multiple regressions, this study found that the teachers' attitude is most influenced by the number of undergraduate science courses that were taken and the teacher's sex and total years of teaching experience. Feelings of competency is the most significant sub-variable and has the most significant influence on the students' perceptions of their elementary science classes, as does the number of years passed since those experiences. The attitude of the upper elementary science teacher toward teaching science was not found to have a major, direct impact on the students' attitude toward science. The attitude toward science is significantly influenced by: the years passed, student perceptions, (directly) by the teachers' total years of experience, student gender, and parental influence. Intensity of high school science (an operational descriptive measure of student attitude), is significantly (positively) predicted by student science attitude, student race and parental influence. Intensity is also significantly, but negatively, predicted by student perception. The causal model supported by this study suggests that improvements in student attitude can best be promoted by increasing teachers' feelings of competency by taking more science courses during the undergraduate years. The model also supports increasing parental involvement in their children's science education.