Middle school students’ attitudes toward science, scientists, science teachers and classes

Quantitative research method was used in the study. Such kind of research method is used to explain phenomena, attitudes, opinions and behaviors or other defined variables by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using statistically based methods (Aliaga & Gunderson, 2000). Questionnaires are one of the fundamental data collection instruments in this kind of research method. It is easy to reach larger number of participants via them and participants can respond more truthfully while responding to the questionnaires owing to the fact that their responses are anonymous.

Participants

Turkey is geographically divided into seven regions which are Marmara, Aegean, Central Anatolia, Black Sea, Mediterranean, Eastern Anatolia and Southeast Anatolia as shown in Figure 1. The regions in the west side of Turkey have better socio-economic status and schooling rate than others especially Southeast and Eastern Anatolia (Ersungur, Kızıltan & Polat, 2007; Kocabaş, Aladağ & Yavuzalp, 2004). In order to get generalizable results; the data was collected from each different region in Turkey. The sample consisted of 2063 students from fourth grade to eighth grade. Since the studied population is spread across a wide area, cluster sampling method was used for its ease to access the selected sample. One or two cities from each region which are leaders in terms of economy, culture and population was determined as participant source. Then the school list in that city was examined and several schools from both city center and rural areas were chosen. They were asked for whether they are voluntary in order to join the research and the study was done with consentient schools. Table 1 shows the number and percentages of students in terms of gender, regions and grade levels that were involved in this research.

Fig. 1: Map of Turkey with regions

Table 1: Number and Percentages of Students Involved in the Study

*Gender*	Number of Students	*Grade*	Number of Students
Male	1073 (52%)	4th Grade	314 (15.2%)
Female	990 (48%)	5th Grade	342 (16.6%)
		6th Grade	443 (21.5%)
*Region*	Number of Students	8th Grade	451 (21.9%)
Marmara	238 (14.1%)	Total	2063
Black Sea	216 (10.5%)
Eastern Anatolia	181(8.8%)
Southeast Anatolia	198 (9.6%)
Mediterranean	90 (4.4%)

Instrument

The Assessing Attitudes and Preferences in Science (AAPS) instrument was used in the study. It was adapted from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, 1978), which was developed by Enger and Yager in 2001. It was designed to evaluate students’ attitudes toward science and preferences in science related concepts from grade four to grade 12. The AAPS consists of 30 positive and negative likert-type statements. The first 18 statements are related to students’ attitudes toward science and scientists. The other 12 statements are used to gather data about demographic information about the students and the schools. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the instrument for current study was calculated as .76. The scale aims to measure student attitudes and preferences in the following four sub-scales: Science Teachers (ST), Science Classes (SC), Usefulness of Science Study (USS) and Perceptions of Being a Scientist (PBS).

Data Analysis

Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to evaluate the data. The data was analyzed by using the statistical software package (SPSS 17.0). One-Way Anova test was used to compare regions among themselves and to compare grade levels from grade four to grade eight. In addition, post hoc (Tukey) test was used to reveal in which regions there are meaningful differences with respect to each category.