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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

A survey study of grade six students' atitudes towards science in selected schools of Papua New Ginea

Kappey, J. R., n/a January 1990 (has links)
This survey study on students attitudes towards science was conducted in Papua New Guinea. It involved 200 randomly selected grade six students in eight selected community (primary) schools (4 urban and 4 rural) of four provinces. There were six research questions to focus the study. The instruments consisted of 9 Students Background Questions, 9 interview questions, 43 Students Science Attitude Questionnaire Items, and a 20-item cognitive test. The former three sets of instruments were trialled in two schools. The test questions were not trialled as they were trialled previously in several schools within PNG. The 43 Likert-type items were divided into five categories - curiosity, enjoyment, science learning, perceived achievement, and relevance. Each category was assigned 10 items, with the exception of perceived achievement which had three items. About half of the the statements in a category were negatively worded. A student had to put a tick in a box next to a statement according to his or her feelings. The choices were given by the five-point scale - Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Hot Sure (NS), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SD) along with three laces (smiling, uncertain and frowning) which were added as interest, From the twenty five students in a study school, a group of 6 students (3 males and 3 females) was randomly selected for face to face interview. The responses in the items associated with the five categories (dependent variables) were used to assess various student characteristics (independent variables) of parent and home background (i.e. parent educational levels and language use at home), gender (male and female), biogeographical location (urban and rural), and level of performance in standardized cognitive test (above average, average and below average). Statistical techniques of correlation coefficient, analysis of variance and factor analysis were used in analysing the responses but the results were not clear due insufficient trialling and test of reliability with the limited period in which the data had to be collected. As consequence, chi-square test (contingency tables) was used as alternative statistical test to determine significant differences in responses to the items at 0.05 level. With the exception of perceived achievement, student responses to the items on the categories were generally and satisfactorily positive. The mean levels of attitudes in the categories were not as high as one may expect (Table 5.1). Relatively, few of the items associated with student independent variables showed significant differences. There was generally no significant differences in parent and home backgrounds (i.e. language use and parent educational background). Urban students tended to be more positive than the rural students, but. this not could be generalised due to a small number of items with significant differences. Male students showed more positive attitudes to science than female students, but this was limited to a small number of items. The students with above average scores in the cognitive test showed more positive attitudes to science than those of average and below verage scores. However, the number of items were quite small, and therefore could not be generalised. Points of improvement in the practice of teaching and future research in attitudes to science are recommended. For instance, the present officially prescribed time of 40 minutes per week for science should be changed to 1.5 to 2 hours after further investigation. The reason for this is that it requires some preparation before actual lessons begin (e.g. collecting materials by groups) and the students are generally slow.

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