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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article 16 (Jun., 2012) |
Students’ attitudes toward school chemistry: The effect of interaction between gender and grade level
Hatice BELGE CAN
Middle East Technical University, Secondary Science & Mathematics Education
Ankara-TURKEY
E-mail: e128456@metu.edu.trReceived 16 Mar., 2012
Revised 27 Jun., 2012
The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of interaction between gender and grade level on secondary school students’ attitudes toward chemistry as a school subject. The sample is composed of 197 students across Grades 9 to 11. The Attitude Scale Toward Chemistry, developed by Geban & Ertepinar (1994), is used to collect data. Principal Component Analysis revealed two dimensions of the scale which were labelled as “enjoyment of chemistry” and “importance of chemistry”. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the whole scale was computed as .93. Two-way MANOVA results indicated that the interaction effect between gender and grade level on students’ attitudes toward school chemistry in terms of both enjoyment and importance dimensions was statistically significant. Overall, the findings of this study offer that the educational objective of developing positive attitudes toward chemistry lesson is not fully achieved in Turkey.
Keywords: Attitude Toward Chemistry; Gender; Grade Level; Interaction Between Gender and Grade Level; Secondary School Students.
