Quantifying attitude to chemistry in students at the University of the South Pacific (original) (raw)

Refinement of a Chemistry Attitude Measure for College Students

This work presents the evaluation and refinement of a chemistry attitude measure, Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (ASCI), for college students. The original 20-item and revised eight-item versions of ASCI (V1, V2, and V3) were administered to different samples. The evaluation for ASCI had two main foci: reliability and validity. This study provided evidences for good reliability and validity of ASCI V2 scores. Reliability was estimated by satisfying internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The two-factor (“intellectual accessibility” and “emotional satisfaction”) correlated structure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis. The two subscales could be indicators of cognition and affect components of attitude, and thus we can make good connection with theoretical framework in psychology. As regards to attitude-achievement relationship, other than the well-known aptitude test score, students’ attitude played a significant role in predicting final achievement in General Chemistry course. Implications for science education were discussed.

Attitude toward chemistry: Student’s perception based on learning experience

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2020

This research is descriptive study that explains students’ scientific attitude in learning chemistry. Based on the purpose, a questionnaire which contained several statements about students’ scientific attitude was distributed. The number of students who participated was 55 students in two high schools in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Questionnaire data were analyzed quantitatively as a percentages, then categorized as low, medium and high. The data shows that most students still have scientific attitudes in the low and medium categories. This research is can be additional information for teachers and other researchers to improve students’ scientific attitude because scientific attitudes are also related to student achievement.

Attitude and Achievement of First-Year Chemistry Undergraduate Students at The University of the South Pacific

Frontiers in Education, 2022

Student attitude toward chemistry may influence engagement and achievement in chemistry-related courses, however, equivocal results in studies conducted in Western countries to date indicate this relationship requires further investigation. In this study, we investigated the correlation between attitude toward chemistry and achievement amongst a cohort of first-year undergraduate students from The University of the South Pacific (USP). A cluster analysis was used to identify low-and high-achieving groups of students to further explore potential correlations. There was a positive correlation between the cognitive and affective components of attitude among low-achieving students, but not among high-achieving students. The cognitive component of attitude did not appear to be strongly correlated with achievement in students from either group, although the affective component was positively correlated with achievement. The single item most strongly correlated with student achievement was their response on the Worthless-Beneficial scale. One of the notable findings was the differences in the attitude-achievement relationship between low-achieving and high-achieving students, suggesting that combining these clusters of students into a single group for analysis may obscure underlying correlations. Chemistry educators should continue to target their teaching styles to cater to different learning styles and achievement levels of students, including cognitive and non-cognitive learning styles.

Attitude to the study of chemistry and its relationship with achievement in an introductory undergraduate course

Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2015

A positive attitude to a subject may be congruent with higher achievement; however, limited evidence supports this for students in undergraduate chemistry -this may result from difficulties in quantifying attitude. Therefore, in this study, the Attitude to the Study of Chemistry Inventory (ASCI)a validated instrument to quantify attitude, was used to measure attitude to chemistry in 125 undergraduates studying an introductory course in chemistry, as part of a BSc Chemistry major. The 13 week course contained 4 summative assessments: practical (PRAC), tutorial (TUT), on-line web-based learning (OWL), and a final exam (FE). Sub-scales within ASCI which quantify the 'affective' and 'cognitive' components of attitude were determined. Firstly, for all 125 students, weak correlations (r) between the affective scale score and FE (r=0.275, P<0.01) and TOTAL (r=0.228, P<0.05), were recorded. Secondly, a low achieving (LA, n=48) and a high achieving (HA, n=77) group were identified using a cluster analysis procedure. The HA group scored higher than the LA group in PRAC, OWL, FE and TOTAL (all P<0.001), but the clusters were not different in their scores for either the affective or the cognitive components of attitude. There was no correlation between attitude and achievement in the HA group, and only one weak positive correlation (0.409), between the affective score and achievement in the LA group. We suggest that although a positive attitude may be an important part of the undergraduate experience, it is at best only weakly associated with achievement in undergraduate chemistry.

Secondary School Students’ Attitudes Towards Learning Chemistry: Comparison by Gender, Age and Educational Stream

GAMTAMOKSLINIS UGDYMAS / NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION, 2020

There is a dilemma among secondary school students’ attitudes towards learning chemistry in public sector educational institutions. Chemistry is considered as complicated and painstaking subject for students. Research was conducted to explore students’ attitudes towards learning chemistry of public sector secondary school students of district Lahore. Researchers used quantitative research approach based on positivist paradigm through conducting survey. Sample consisted of randomly selected enrolled 700 secondary school students: 350 male and 350 female. Questionnaire was administered to measure students’ attitudes based on 5-point Likert type options. Content validity of the instrument was confirmed from three expert opinions, and reliability was measured by calculating Cronbach’s Alpha Scores .841. Normality of the data was confirmed by calculating Shapiro-Wilk’s test, p > .05, n < 2000. Data were analyzed in SPSS by calculating independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA. F...

Higher Secondary School Students’ Attitude towards Chemistry

Asian Social Science, 2012

The focus of this study was about higher secondary school students' attitude towards chemistry subject, chemistry teacher and teaching methodologies of chemistry teacher. Like academic achievement, attitude is considered to be an important product of higher secondary education. The population of this study was all the higher secondary schools students of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan), however due to time constraints and convenience the 35 second year students of government higher secondary school Jamrud Khyber agency Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were taken as convenience sample for this study. A modified questionnaire of Abulude (2009), Cheung (2009) and class room life script of Johnson and Johnson, Johnson, Johnson & Anderson (1983), of likert scale were used as an instrument for this study. The attitude of the students was analyzed by the mean score of each statement. The study revealed that students were very much satisfied from the chemistry teacher however students have worries about the subject of chemistry and the methodology of chemistry.

Assessment of the Attitudes of Engineering Freshman Students towards Chemistry Learning Using an Adaptation of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey ( CLASS )

2017

Some studies have reported for the case of Iberoamerica that the majority of students do not have direct interest in the study of the exact and natural sciences, although the engineering ones have better acceptance, the greater tendency is towards the Social Sciences. There are many factors that determine this disinterest and its articulation is quite complex, however it is necessary to study them to have relevant information that could be taken into account for the design of effective strategies that contribute to improve this situation. One of the critical aspects is the students' attitude towards the learning of science which is associated with their conceptions of science. The promotion of favorable attitudes toward science and technology is one of the priority objectives of scientific education. The aim of this study is to assess the attitude towards chemistry and its learning in first year students of sciences and engineering of a Peruvian university. For this purpose, the...

Attitude towards Learning Chemistry among Secondary School Students in Malaysia

Asian Journal of Behavioural Studies

In this current era, the world is facing environmental challenges where the future communities are losing interest in science subjects such as chemistry. There are many factors that contributed to students’ success. One of the factors is the students’ attitude in learning. The result of this study revealed that a majority of the students has a positive attitude towards learning chemistry when they conduct chemistry experiments in the laboratory. Students also show positive attitude towards teachers’ teaching style. Result also revealed that most students have a negative attitude towards chemistry because they lack interest in the subject and the syllabus itself.Keywords: Attitude, chemistry, future communities, environmental challengeseISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under respon...

Attitude Towards Learning Chemistry: A Case Of Secondary School Students In Pakistan

Attitude is very complex and sticky construct. Pakistani sector educational institutions offer three educational streams; Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Chemistry is a painstaking subject for secondary school students. Students remain curious during the process of learning. Students move away from Chemistry understanding due to complications. The individuals show their poor attitudes towards learning Chemistry as well. The present research was framed to examine the students' attitude towards learning chemistry at the secondary level by gender, academic stream, locale and school type. The nature of this study was descriptive and quantitative with a positivistic paradigm. 700 individuals were selected from 35 boy secondary schools and 35 girl secondary schools. Individuals were selected on the basis of multi-stage random sampling procedure. An adapted attitude scale was used for data collection comprised of seven factors. The questionnaire was piloted tested; the first draft was distributed to 50 male secondary schools and 50 female of 10th grade. The reliability and validity of the instrument were tested by using the statistical operations. The instrument was revised for the final instrumentation; two items were excluded from the final attitude scale and was consisted of 30 items. The researcher himself distributed and collected the data from the 700 subjects. Data were inserted in SPSS-24 for analyzing the data. Standard Deviation (SD), Mean, and independent sample t-test were applied for analyzing and the data. The results show that female students having better attitude than the male students; in the context of academic stream, biology students having better attitude than the computer students; in locale, urban students possessing more positive attitude than the rural students; furthermore, public school students possessing more positive attitude than the private school students towards learning chemistry at secondary level. Further research studies may conduct on the same construct in the future at primary, elementary, higher secondary, college and university level in different subjects.

Relationship between Student Attitudes and Student Achievement in Chemistry Subject Area of Science

Ven B.Siri Sumedha Thero, 2024

It is essential to identify the problems faced by students in building science education. Through the analysis of the results of the Sri Lanka Examination Department, it is clear that the minimum mark is obtained for the science subject as a whole relative to other subjects. According to the evaluation reports of the general certificate examination of the same department for several years, it appears that among the three fields of science, biology, chemistry and physics, the facility for the field of chemistry is relatively low. Therefore, it was a major need of this research to find out the multifaceted correlation and influence between students' attitude towards the subject of chemistry and student achievement. For that, the research was implemented through a quantitative design. 111 teachers and 302 students from 13 secondary schools in Kegalle Education Zone of Kegalle District, Sri Lanka were selected as the sample. Cluster random sampling method was chosen as the sampling method. For data collection, a questionnaire developed by a group of researchers from the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council was used to measure the attitude towards the subject. A pilot test was conducted for a validation test based on the research instrument and Bloom's taxonomy. In addition, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was also conducted to further confirm the validity of the research instrument identified to measure the students' attitude towards the subject. Research instruments were given to the sample and data were collected. An exploratory data analysis (EDA) was first conducted to validate the collected data. Then, data analysis related to the main study was done using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. It was identified that there is a positive correlation between attitude towards the subject and student achievement in finding answers to the research questions related to the research. The learning and teaching process should be made more student-centered by identifying the basic needs of the students and understanding student diversity. In the learning and teaching process, we should also tend to use innovative strategies to make learning fun and enjoyable.