Attitudes toward science among Australian tertiary and secondary school students

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that might be associated with students’ attitudes towards science. The participants were 1745 students from secondary schools and universities across Australia. The results of factor analysis, descriptive statistics, Tukey’s post hoc test and correlation analysis demonstrate that there were statistically significant differences between male and female students. Finally, the study provides a valid and reliable instrument. Implications of this study for future research are also discussed.

Keywords:

• science education
• motivation
• students’ interest
• students’ attitude
• methods in science education
• factor analysis