Slovakian Students’ Attitudes
toward Biology
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1 |
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA |
2 |
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, TURKEY |
3 |
Trnava University, Trnava, SLOVAKIA |
Publication date: 2007-12-23
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2007;3(4):287–295
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Students’ attitudes toward science significantly alter their achievement in science.
Therefore, identification and influence of attitudes became to be an essential part of
educational research. This study has been initiated by the idea that; research in students’
attitudes toward science often involves science in general, but particular disciplines like
biology or chemistry have been overlooked. Thus, this study is about Slovak students’
attitude toward biology through six dimensions; interest, career, importance, teacher,
equipment and difficulty. The study used a 30-item Biology Attitude Questionnaire
(BAQ) to measure students’ attitudes toward biology education. The data were obtained
from 655 secondary school students attending eight typical elementary schools in Slovakia.
Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed a negative effect of age whereas
the effect of gender was not significant. Univariate results, on the other hand, indicated
that there is a significant interaction of students’ interest in relation with grade and gender.
One of the findings of the study is that, students’ attitude toward biology teacher is
strongly affected by teacher identity. This can be taken as a hint for future research. That
effect of teacher should be included as a parameter to be considered for the studies related
to student attitude.