Middle school students’ attitude toward science in constructivist curriculum environment

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle school students' attitude toward science and the effect of gender, grade level and parent education level on students' attitude toward science. The sample of this survey study included 2961 sixth, seventh and eighth grade middle school students in Çankaya, Ankara. Students completed 40 items test of science related attitude (TOSRA) developed by Fraser (1978). Four dimensions (adaptation of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science) were selected for this study. Descriptive analyses revealed that, regarding the mean scores of each TOSRA dimension, students were undecided about all sub-dimensions of attitude. MANOVA results showed that grade level significantly affected middle school students' attitude toward science regarding adaptation of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science. Gender and parents education level have influence on only adaptation of scientific attitudes dimension.

,

Attitude Toward Science ,

Constructivist Curriculum Environment ,

Curriculum ,