Attitude towards the discipline of physics-chemistry and school achievement: revisiting factor structure to assess gender differences in Portuguese high-school students

ABSTRACT

The importance of attitudes and other variables of the affective domain in education is acknowledged for a long time. In this study, we used an attitude questionnaire to survey 498 Portuguese 9th-grade students to determine the predictive ability of the attitudes towards the discipline of Physics-chemistry on school achievement. Possible gender differences were also investigated after establishing the measurement invariance of the factor structure. The survey instrument presented some issues regarding factor structure. After a new factor analysis using more robust statistical methods, a four-factor structure of attitudes towards Physics-chemistry – Competence to discipline, Pleasure in learning, Anxiety, and Utility – was established and used in this study. The means of the Competence and the Pleasure in learning factors were significantly higher in the boy’s group while the factors Anxiety and Utility were not significantly different between genders. Competence was the most important achievement predictor, with significant positive effects, while the factors Anxiety and, surprisingly, Pleasure in learning presented significant negative impacts on the grades. The possible reasons and consequences for these results are discussed, and some suggestions are made about the importance of considering the relevance of affective variables on teaching and learning high-school Physical sciences.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitude towards the discipline of physics-chemistry
• school achievement
• gender differences
• high-school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Paulo Vilia is a PhD student in Educational Sciences at University of Évora. His PhD research project focus on the affective and cognitive variables affecting the achievement of Portuguese middle school students in Science subjects (Physics and Chemistry, Natural Sciences). He taught Natural Sciences and Natural Sciences Didactics as an assistant professor at Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Portugal between 2001 and 2012.

Adelinda Candeias has an MD & PhD in Psychology (Psychology of Education). She is also Associate Professor in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Évora, teaching in the Bachelor in Psychology, in the Master Programs in Educational Psychology and Special Education, and in the PhD Programs in Psychology and Education. She is a member of the Centre for Educational Research and Psychology from the University of Évora and has coordinated several national and international research projects in educational psychology. She has co-edited several books among them With a different glance: Dynamic Assessment and Functioning of Children Oriented at Development & Inclusive Learning (2011) and, has several publications in journals and book chapters.

ORCID

Paulo Vilia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4066-8673

Adelinda A. Candeias http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9489-8880

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [grant number PTDC/CPE-CED/104884/2008,SFRH/BD/90575/2012].