Attitudes towards Science: Structure and gender differences

Although there has been extensive research investigating students' attitudes towards science in the last four decades, little has been done to probe the internal structure of attitudes towards science itself. In the present study, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was adopted to compare five hypothetical models of attitudes towards science. The participants were 305 senior secondary school students in Hong Kong. Findings reflect that (i) the data consistently supported the three-factor structure of the practice dimension of attitudes towards science; (ii) four lower-level dimensions of attitudes towards science (i.e., value of science in society, self-concept in science, anxiety towards science, and enjoyment of science) could be further integrated; (iii) teachers’ practice had a closer relationship with the practice component of students’ attitudes towards science than the cognition and affect components; and (iv) compared with the relationship dimension, the pedagogy dimension of teachers’ practice had a closer relationship with students’ attitudes towards science. Copyright © 2016 International Conference of East-Asian Association for Science Education.