Attitude Measurements in Science Education: Classic and Contemporary Approaches PDF
Preview Attitude Measurements in Science Education: Classic and Contemporary Approaches
Attitude Measurements in Science Education Classic and Contemporary Approaches Attitude Measurements in Science Education Classic and Contemporary Approaches Edited by Myint Swe Khine Emirates College for Advanced Education United Arab Emirates INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC. Charlotte, NC • www.infoagepub.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov ISBN: 978-1-68123-084-9 (Paperback) 978-1-68123-085-6 (Hardcover) 978-1-68123-086-3 (ebook) Copyright © 2015 Information Age Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS PART I INSTRUMENTS AND MEASURING SCIENCE ATTITUDE 1 Attitude Research in Science Education .............................................3 Norman Reid 2 New Approaches to the Study of Students’ Response to Science ....47 Lars Brian Krogh 3 Development and Test of an Instrument That Investigates Teachers’ Beliefs, Attitudes and Intentions Concerning the Educational Use of Simulations .........................................................83 Zacharias C. Zacharia, Ioanna Rotsaka, and Tasos Hovardas 4 Defending Attitude Scales .................................................................119 Per Kind and Patrick Barmby 5 The Multiple Response Model for the “Views on Science- Technology-Society” (VOSTS) Instrument: An Empirical Application in the Context of the Electronic Waste Issue..............139 Yuqing Yu and Felicia Moore Mensah 6 Tailoring Information to Change Attitudes: A Meta-Structural Approach ............................................................179 Ya Hui Michelle See and Bernice L. Z. Khoo 7 Assessment Practices for Understanding Science-Related Attitudes .............................................................................................203 Carina M. Rebello, Stephen B. Witzig, Marcelle A. Siegel, and Sharyn K. Freyermuth v vi Contents 8 The Influence of Experiential Learning on Indigenous New Zealanders’ Attitude Towards Science: Enculturation into Science by Means of Legitimate Peripheral Participation .............223 Richard K. Coll and Levinia Paku PART II SCIENCE ATTITUDE AND SOCIO-SCIENTIFIC ISSUES 9 Relationship of Students’ Attitudes Toward Science and Academic Achievement .............................................................245 Ernest Afari 10 Student Attitudes Toward Scientists .................................................263 Anita Welch and Douglas Huffman 11 Attitudes towards Science and Scientific Methodology within a Specific Professional Culture ...........................................................283 Darko Hren 12 Use of Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) in Korea: Stream Differences and Associations with Constructivist Classroom Environments ..................................................................293 Barry J. Fraser and Seon Uk Lee 13 Affective Variables and Education: The Role of Attitudes in Science Learning ..........................................................................309 Myint Swe Khine PART I INSTRUMENTS AND MEASURING SCIENCE ATTITUDE CHAPTER 1 ATTITUDE RESEARCH IN SCIENCE EDUCATION Norman Reid University of Glasgow United Kingdom HISTORY OF ATTITUDES The word attitude has a very vague range of meanings in normal day to day language. We often use the word to interpret almost any kind of behavior that is regarded as unusual or unacceptable. Indeed, attitudes may under- pin many aspects of behavior and that is why the study of attitudes is so im- portant. However, in the world of social psychology, it took decades for the concept of attitude to crystallize into any kind of agreed meaning. Herbert Spencer (1862, quoted by Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) offered one of the first descriptions of attitudes when he spoke of, ‘‘arriving at correct judgements on disputed questions much depends on the attitude of mind we preserve while listening to, or taking part in, the controversy” (p. 13). Perhaps Spencer was unfortunate in implying that there are “correct” judg- ments but his idea of judgment is important. The problem is that attitudes cannot be seen or observed directly. They exist in the brain. For many decades in the early 20th century, the domi- nance of behaviorist thought in the world of psychology meant that it was not thought acceptable to seek to measure what could only be deduced by Attitude Measurements in Science Education, pages 3–46 Copyright © 2015 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 3
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