Science Attitudes of Students Enrolled in an Introductory Environmental Science Course
Abstract
This study examines attitudes towards science for 198 students enrolled in an introductory university environmental science course. Conceptual frameworks include the theory of planned behaviour and the tripart model of attitudes to assess science attitudes. A quantitative research design, using secondary data, is used to address this purpose. Within this study, Enjoyment of Science and Science Anxiety factors of attitudes towards science, components of the affective domain of attitude are compared to student gender, faculty, and academic year using a modified mATSI:2 questionnaire. It is found that faculty displays the most significant association with science attitudes, with students from science faculties displaying significantly more positive science attitudes compared to students from nonscience faculties. Male students also display significantly more positive science attitudes compared to female students on two Science Anxiety factor items- "it makes me nervous to even think about science” and “it scared me to have to take a science class”. A significant difference is also found between first-year and upper-year students on one Science Anxiety factor item- “No matter how hard I try, I cannot understand science”. Additionally, two distinct clusters are also identified- one cluster displaying positive science attitudes and another displaying neutral and negative science attitudes. Results reveal that the cluster displaying positive science attitudes contains significantly more science faculty students than the cluster displaying neutral and negative science attitudes. Overall, this study demonstrates a relationship between student faculty membership and attitudes towards science for students enrolled in an introductory university environmental science course.