Investigating pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards science in Bahrain: Positive or negative?

The survey method as descriptive research method was used to be able to collect quantitative data. Jackson (2011) stated: “The essence of survey method can be explained as “questioning individuals on a topic or topics and then describing their responses.” Data were collected by using TOSRA English version to investigate pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards science.

Participants

Participants (75 out of 92) were from the first year of Bachelor of Education students at Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain in Bahrain in the 2008-2009 academic year. 26 of them were in Math & Science programme to become Math & Science teacher in primary schools. The rest was in the English and Arabic Education programme. The students graduated from different high schools were agreed to participate in the study. Their socio-economic background was different, but Bahrain Ministry of Education awarded all of them scholarships to study and become a teacher to serve in Bahrain.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data were collected by using the TOSRA English version. Participants’ attitudes toward science were assessed by using the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA). The TOSRA was used to assess changes in participants’ attitudes towards science and science related issues. Fraser (1978) developed the survey to measure seven science related attitudes among secondary school students. Social implications of Science (S), Normality of Scientists (N), Attitude to Scientific Inquiry (I), Adoption of Scientific Attitudes (A), Enjoyment of Science Lessons (E), Leisure Interest in Science (L), and Career Interest in Science (C) are attitude scales. These scales are suitable for group administration and all can be administered within the duration of a normal class lesson.

Each scale contains 10 items scored from 1 to 5. So, on each of the seven scales of the TOSRA, scores could range from 10 to 50; therefore, a score below the midpoint of 30 indicated a generally negative attitude for that scale. In Table 1 and Table 2, the TOSRA’s scale names and their description are shown.

Table 1. Scale Names and Their Descriptions

Scale name	Description of scale
Social implications of Science(S )	Students’ attitude regarding the positive and negative effects of science society
Normality of Scientists(N )	Students’ belief about scientist lifestyles
Attitude to Scientific Inquiry (I)	Attitude to scientific experimentation and inquiry as ways of obtaining information about the natural world
Adoption of Scientific Attitudes (A)	The specific attitudes (e.g. open-mindedness, willingness to revise opinions, etc.)
Enjoyment of Science Lessons (E)	Students’ level of enjoyment of classroom science lessons
Leisure interest in science (L)	Students’ desire to participate in out-of-school science-related activities
Career Interest in Science (C)	Students’ future interest in science

Table 2. Scales and item numbers

Scale	Item
1. Social implications of Science(S )	1, 8, l5, 22, 25, 36, 43, 50, 27, 64
2. Normality of Scientists(N )	2, 5, 16, 23, 30, 37, 44, 51, 58, 65
3. Attitude to Scientific Inquiry (I)	3, l0, 17, 24, 3l, 38, 45, 52, 52, 66
4. Adoption of Scientific Attitudes (A)	4, 11, 18, 25, 32, 35, 46, 53, 60, 67
5. Enjoyment of Science Lessons (E)	5, 12, l 9, 26, 33, 40, 47, 54, 61, 68
6. Leisure Interest in Science (L)	6, 13, 20, 27, 34, 4l, 48, 55, 62, 69
7. Career Interest in Science (C)	7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70

Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Scores for each question range from 1 to 5, with lower values indicating more negative attitudes toward science. The TOSRA test scores could range from 70 to 350, a range of 280 (350-70=280) points. A score higher than the midpoint of 210 indicated a relatively positive attitude toward science; lower than 210 indicated a relatively negative attitude.

The TOSRA can be used by teachers, curriculum evaluators, or researchers to monitor student progress towards achieving attitudinal aims. Although it is possible to use the TOSRA for assessing the progress of an individual student, the TOSRA is likely to be the most useful for examining the performance of groups or classes of students (e.g.in curriculum evaluation). Furthermore, as well as providing information about attitudes at a particular time, the TOSRA could also be used as a pre-test and a post-test (perhaps over the time of a school term or year) to obtain information about changes in students’ attitudes (Fraser, 1981).