The science education of the East Asian regions

In PISA 2006 where science was the major domain, various attitudinal constructs about science and science learning were assessed using Likert scale items (Table 4). Some sample items for each construct are shown in Table 5 .

As compared to the OECD students, students from the three Chinese regions: Hong Kong, Taipei and Macao, tended to have greater interest in science and enjoyment of science learning, and valued more science learning from both personal and future career perspectives (Table 4). However, despite their good performance and high interest, they had low self-concept in science. Students in Japan and Korea, different form their Chinese counterparts, were below the OECD averages in almost all attitudinal constructs.

Interest and enjoyment pertain more to intrinsic motivation (Krapp, 1999), while instrumental and career oriented motivations are more related to extrinsic motivation when it refers to learning as a voluntary action. The data show that Chinese students were both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated, whereas Japanese and Korean students seemed relying more on extrinsic motivation for their science learning. One thing common to all East Asian regions was low self concept (relative to the OECD average). Asian teachers are "extraordinarily mean in their marking, a deliberate strategy for extracting ever more efforts from students" (Watkins & Biggs, 2001, p.16), which in turn undermines the confidence of students in their abilities in coping with tests. However, their efforts toward learning were probably not weakened accordingly due to the Confucian heritage in these East Asian communities, which emphasizes effort over ability, study as a kind of hardship, and failure as necessary for future success.

Table 4. Attitudinal indexes of five East Asian regions in PISA 2006

	General interest in science	Enjoyment of learning science	General value of science	Self concept in science	Self efficacy in science	Instrumental motivation to learn science	Future oriented motivation to learn science
Hong Kong	0.19	0.38	0.55	-0.25	0.06	0.16	0.29
Taipei	0.09	0.17	0.72	-0.4	0.18	0.27	0.14
Macau	0.1	0.41	0.54	-0.11	-0.11	0.39	0.17
Japan	-0.13	-0.26	-0.18	-0.87	-0.53	-0.43	-0.24
Korea	-0.24	-0.17	0.27	-0.71	-0.21	-0.26	-0.25

The value is scaled by setting the OECD average to be zero and a standard deviation of -1 to +1

Table 5. Attitudinal constructs and sample items in PISA 2006

Attitudinal construct	Sample questions
General interest in science	The interest in the following subjects: e.g. human biology, ways scientists design experiments
Enjoyment of learning science	I enjoy acquiring new knowledge science
General value of science	Science is important for helping us to understand the natural world
Self concept in science	School science topics are easy to me
Self efficacy in science	How easy do you think you can perform the following tasks: e.g. Describe the role of antibiotics in the treatment of diseases.
Instrumental motivation to learn science	I study school science because I know it is useful to me.
Future oriented motivation to learn science	I would like to work in a career involving science. I would like to study science after secondary school.