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Changes in primary boys' and girls' attitudes to school and science during a two‐year science in‐service programme
Author(s) -
Jarvis Tina,
Pell Anthony
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1080/09585170110115268
Subject(s) - enthusiasm , test (biology) , feeling , psychology , science education , service (business) , mathematics education , perception , sample (material) , pedagogy , medical education , social psychology , medicine , paleontology , chemistry , economy , chromatography , economics , biology , neuroscience
A pupils' attitude test was developed to monitor change over the two years of a primary science in‐service programme. It explores pupils' views about school in general so that changes in science attitudes can be contextualized within the whole school experience; feelings towards science experiments; and perceptions of real‐world science. The test was piloted with schools outside the in‐service programme. Approximately 2000 pupils were tested in January 1999, September 1999 or January 2000. A random sample of children were retested in June 1999 and compared with a ‘control’ school. All the children in the project were tested again in July 2000. The results indicate a generally positive attitude towards coming to school, with particular preferences for work with computers and working together. As the pupils get older, their enthusiasm for science falls as they find it less difficult or demanding. This relationship appears to be broken by teacher in‐service to some extent. Girls in particular also showed a greater enthusiasm for independent investigative science after the programme.