Are attitudes towards science and technology related to critical areas in science education?

ABSTRACT

Background

The importance of developing positive attitudes towards science and technology has been widely known, and it reflects a general interest and a strong need to define more explicitly what measures can be taken to improve student attitudes towards science. In Slovakia, in addition to a low interest in scientific jobs, there is another problem related to science: a long-term low level of science literacy. Therefore, we are interested in the ways in which a teacher can improve students’ attitudes towards science, as significant studies highlight the importance of teachers.

Purpose

In our research, we compared attitudes towards science and technology among teachers of natural sciences with their students’ attitudes. By analysing the teaching process, we sought critical areas in teaching natural sciences, and we also evaluated the relations between attitudes towards science and technology and the teaching process.

Sample

We explored the opinions of 498 students and 98 teachers of natural science subjects in Slovak secondary and high schools.

Design and methods

An e-questionnaire was used as a research tool. The processed quantitative data as well as their reliability were analysed statistically in the STATISTICA 8 (Statsoft) programme. Basic dependencies between the items were found by a correlation analysis. For comparing the collected points between individual categories and dimensions the ANOVA software was used.

Results

The statistical analysis showed a strong influence of the critical areas of teaching on student attitudes with respect to science. The most critical area was practical work in science, which was closely linked with inquiry-oriented activities in class.

Conclusions

In the conclusion, we propose further measures for improving student attitudes towards science and technology that teachers should focus on if they want to positively influence their students. The suggested measures could support the development of science literacy with the emphasis on the utilization of science in everyday life.

KEYWORDS:

• Science attitudes
• science education
• teaching
• critical areas

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Agency of Faculty of Education [GAPF] under Grant [3/1a/2021] and the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences [VEGA] under Grant [1/0128/21] and the Cultural and Educational Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic [KEGA] under Grant [018UMB-4/2020].