This thesis reports on the modification, validation and application of a classroom learning environment questionnaire. This thesis is distinctive in that parents' perceptions were utilised in conjunction with students' perceptions in investigating science classroom learning environments among Grade 4 and 5 students in South Florida. The What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire was modified for young students and their parents. Data from samples of students and parents were analysed to check the reliability and validity of the modified questionnaires and to examine similarities and differences between parents' and students' perceptions of the learning environment. Associations between parents' and students' perceptions of the science learning environment and student outcomes (attitude and achievement) were also investigated in this study. Parents and students were interviewed to check further the validity and reliability of questionnaires and to enhance the richness of the quantitative findings. Interviews with parents and students, along with classroom observations, offered some insights into the quantitative findings. Data analyses supported the WIHIC's factorial validity, internal consistency reliability and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Both students and parents preferred a more positive classroom environment than the one perceived to be actually present, but effect sizes for actual-preferred differences were larger for parents than for students. / Associations were found between some learning environment dimensions (especially Task Orientation) and student outcomes (especially attitudes). Qualitative methods suggest that students and parents were generally satisfied with the classroom environment but that students would prefer more investigation while parents would prefer more teacher support. The study provides a pioneering look at how parents and students perceive the science learning environment and opens the way for further learning environment studies involving parents and students.

The improvement of secondary-level students’ attitude to science is encouraged in the New Zealand curriculum document. It is also noteworthy that employers in scientific institutions and commercial organisations place great value on group or teamwork. However, it is apparent that some teachers have reservations about cooperative group work, particularly problems with classroom management. There has been significant research done on cooperative learning and student attitudes, but investigations about the use of cooperative group work to improve the science-related attitudes of our younger secondary school students are rare. This thesis focuses on the effect of cooperative group work and assessment on the attitudes of 312 science students in four rural secondary schools in New Zealand. The cooperative groups were established using a simplified protocol which was non intrusive on curriculum delivery to help ensure wide acceptance by secondary science teachers. The students’ attitudes were assessed quantitatively using the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) while qualitative results were obtained through teacher and student interviews along with researcher observations.. The data were collected before and after three terms of cooperative learning in a variety of activities including practical classes, fieldwork, and written assignments and class tests. This part of the study revealed that group work and group assessment enhanced students’ attitudes to science, with both the teachers and students seeing real value in such activities, especially the formative group testing opportunities. The study also confirmed the reliability and validity of the TOSRA in New Zealand schools for the first time. / The TOSRA was also used to make comparisons of the science-related attitudes of several subgroups within the study population. Such comparisons included the effects of gender, grade level and band along with consideration of the roles of the teacher and classroom environment on student attitudes. Finally, a teacher friendly set of guidelines for the implementation of cooperative group work and assessment in the classroom has been prepared as result of this ongoing research.

The purpose of this research was to determine the condition of evolution education in American parochial schools and the effect of evolution education on students' attitudes toward science. Data were gathered using Eraser's Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) and Bilica's Teaching Evolutionary Topics Survey (TETS). The research participants consisted of 60.3% of biology teachers currently teaching in Lutheran high schools in the United States, and 479 Lutheran high school biology students grades 9-12 in California, Nevada, and Arizona. In the first attitudinal study done specifically on parochial students, statistical analysis confirmed the reliability and validity of the TOSRA instrument for parochial school students. In a quasi-experimental design, analysis revealed that student science attitudes do change as a result of participating in a unit on evolution in the first year biology classes of secondary parochial schools. The emphasis placed by teachers on particular evolutionary topics was also analysed. It was found that all Lutheran high school biology teachers present evolution to some extent although not all topics are emphasized equally. The results also demonstrate that parochial school teachers have nearly the same emphasis placed on evolution as do public school teachers.

In a case study of over three hundred students in one Canberra high school, the attitudes to science of boys and girls in Years 7-10 were investigated using the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA). From this survey population, forty students were selected and interviewed to explore in more detail students' attitudes to science. Parents of the interviewed students were also surveyed to explore possible relationships between students' attitudes and parental expectations and aspirations. For the seven areas of attitudes investigated, students had positive attitudes to science in the areas of social implications of science, normality of scientists, attitudes to scientific enquiry and adoption of scientific attitudes. They displayed neutral to negative attitudes in the areas of enjoyment of science lessons, leisure interest in science and career interest in science. There was a significant difference between boys and girls in two of the seven areas with girls being more negative than boys to a leisure interest in science, and girls more positive than boys towards the normality of scientists. When analysed for year at school and achievement in science, the data indicates that older students and those with higher grades in science generally have a more positive or less negative attitude to science. However, as a group, Year 8 girls were more negative than other groups about the enjoyment of their science lessons, about a leisure interest in science and about a career interest in science. The interviews with students revealed that in general, they liked science and their science teachers but that they would not choose science for leisure activities or for a career. Parents are shown to have high aspirations and somewhat lower expectations for the career prospects of their children. Both parents and students display stereotypical views about certain careers based on gender. Strategies to improve the attitude to science of boys and girls are suggested. These strategies focus on activities for teachers, parents and the students themselves.

Racial minorities, women, and people with disabilities are underrepresented in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Attitude towards science has been shown to be a reliable predictor of science achievement. Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been shown to improve attitude towards a topic. The sample selected consisted of 113 African American high school students (68% to 32% female to male ratio) from Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. A quasi-experimental research design which consisted of pre and post intervention measures of participants’ attitudes towards science was utilized in this study. Overall, Phase 1, a week-long residential camp, saw greater increases with direct respect to time or gender due to the immersive nature of the camp, whereas Phase 2, an eight week long outreach, saw a more complex interaction of the two factors. PBL was shown to be an effective method of instruction to reach African American and women populations.

This study consolidates a long tradition of research involving the development/adaptation and validation of instruments assessing students' perceptions of psychosocial aspects of their classroom learning environments, and their use in investigating both the effects of classroom environment on student outcomes and determinants of classroom environment. The present study is distinctive, however, in that it is one of the few such studies conducted in Nigeria and the first classroom environment study conduced specificallly in agricultural science classrooms.The sample consisted of 1 175 students in 50 classes in 20 schools in eight states and the Federal Capital Territory. Both the individual student and the class mean were used as units of statistical analysis. The classroom environment instrument assessed negotiation, autonomy, student centredness, investigation and differentiation, and the student outcomes were attitudes, enquiry skills and practical performance.Each classroom environment scale was found to have satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity and to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Satistically significant associations were found between classroom environment and the two student outcomes of attitudes and enquiry skills, but not for practical performance. When classroom environment dimensions were used as dependant variables, significant differences were found between schools with different school-level environments and between schools in forest and savanna regions.

Research has shown that interest in science often decreases in the middle-school grades for both boys and girls, but that more boys continue on the science track in high school and college, leading to males dominating the fields of science and engineering in the work place. The interpersonal interaction between teachers and students, as both individuals and as a group, comprises a large part of the classroom learning environment. Though these interactions last only a school year, they can influence student attitudes and achievement in the long term. Past research has suggested that a key factor in improving student achievement and attitudes is to create learning environments which emphasize characteristics that have been found to be linked empirically with achievement and attitudes. The purpose of this study was to use quantitative methods to validate a learning environment questionnaire (Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, QTI), to investigate outcome-environment associations, and to compare male and female students in terms of their attitudes, classroom environment perceptions and achievement. An attitude scale, based on items from the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), and a 48-item eight-scale version of the QTI were administered to 1228 science students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 at one middle school in South Florida. Student achievement was measured using the students’ quarterly (nine-week) science grade. / The results revealed satisfactory internal consistency reliability for the QTI, with alpha reliability coefficients ranging from 0.51 to 0.83 for different scales with the student as the unit of analysis and from 0.54 to 0.96 for class means. For the 10-item attitude scale, the alpha coefficient was above 0.80 for both the student and the class mean as the unit of analysis, demonstrating high internal consistency reliability. Overall, the results of the statistical analyses supported that the QTI questionnaire and the attitude scale are valid and reliable instruments for use with secondary science students in South Florida. A strong relationship was found between student outcomes (attitudes and achievement) and many of the eight QTI scales with either the individual or the class mean as the unit of analysis. For example, students’ attitudes towards science were more positive when teachers exhibited more leadership and understanding behaviors and science achievement was higher when teachers were friendlier and less uncertain. The use of MANOVA tentatively revealed gender differences in students’ perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior, attitudes towards science, and science achievement. However, the differences between males and females were statistically significant only for the Helping/Friendly, Dissatisfied, and Admonishing scales of the QTI and for achievement. In general, relative to males, female students had more positive perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior and higher academic achievement.