The role of motivation and perceptions about science laboratory environment on lower secondary students’ attitude towards science

Donovan, Green, and Mason (2014) has pointed out that learning in the 21st century requires students to be able to design scientific investigation, analyze and interpret data, organize and present arguments from the evidence obtained. This requires the 21st-century science skills to be an integral part of science teaching and learning. Hilton (2008) proposed five competencies that the 21st-century students must acquire. These include the ability to adapt to the changes (adaptability), complex communications/social skills, non-routine problem solving, self-management/self-development, and systems thinking. With advancement in science and technology that has changed the global trend, it is necessary for the teachers and the curriculum to equip the students with all these skills. Profoundly, these skills are also known as higher order thinking skills that are essential for the students to endure the challenges of the 21st century including securing a good job. Efforts to inculcate these skills among the students are already in place in many countries including Malaysia.

The present study intended to investigate the relationship between lower secondary students’ attitude, motivation towards learning science and their perception of the science laboratory learning environment. Results yielded from this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between attitude, motivation and science laboratory learning environment. A positive science laboratory learning environment has proven to be a predictive factor in increasing students’ attitude to learning science. The results of the study are similar to the studies reported by Asabe (2013) and Wong et al. (1997) in which both studies suggested that a positive science laboratory environment will lead to a more positive attitude in learning science. Piburn and Baker (1993) also pointed out that in order to inculcate a positive attitude towards science among students, the interaction between students during the laboratory session is essential. The findings of this study correspond well with the assertion that interaction between/among the classroom communities and available materials predict the quality of learning (Hofstein & Mamlok-Naaman, 2011). Similarly, in this study students were in the opinion cohesiveness and material environment predict their attitude. Chua and Karpudewan (2015) asserted that integration of practical and theory lessons permits a better understanding of the concepts. Likewise, in this study, students were in the opinion integration is one of the subscales of SLEI that predicts attitude.

The second important finding of this study is that students’ motivation significantly contributes to the attitude in learning science. Motivation is evident as a predictive factor in developing a positive attitude towards learning science. Particularly, students’ feel motivated if the lessons develop self-efficacy, able to regulate their learning and the task have some values. A similar result also obtained in the study performed by Boekaerts and Cascallar (2006), Kaplan et al. (2009) and Zimmerman (2000). In these studies, it was stated that highly motivated students in science have a better attitude to learn science. The findings of this study suggest that school teachers have to motivate their students to learn science since highly motivated students have a better attitude and this lead to a better achievement in science. As such it could be proclaimed that motivation is one of the predictive factors that determine the attitude. Therefore, a motivated student expected to express a more positive attitude in learning science and this, in turn, increases the possibility of the student to engage in developing higher order thinking skills during science lessons. Science laboratory is a place where scientific processes and transfer of knowledge happens. In the context when students are highly motivated with a positive attitude the learning of scientific processes and transfer of knowledge in the laboratory setting will be more explicit. Additionally, the 21st-century scientific skills will be better comprehended by the students if the curriculum and the teacher could provide a favorable science learning environment for the students to develop and practice these skills.