[[alternative]]A Study of Relationships Between Attitudes Toward Science and Related Variables of Elementary Students

[[abstract]]In the present study, four instruments, namely, Attitudes Toward Science Scale (ATSS), Science Achievement Test (SAT), Learning Environment Questionnaire for Elementary Students(LEQ), Science Teaching Environment Questionnaire in Elementary School(STEQ), were developed and used to investigate the relationships between attitudes toward science and science achievement, academic achievements, student's background variables, and school variables of elementary students in Taipei area. The subjects included in this study consisted of 1371 fifth and sixth grade students. The results of validation study showed that the internal-consistency reliability (Cronbach α coefficient) of the ATSS and the SAT were 0.96 and 0.80 respectively. The results also indicated that the content validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity of the two instruments were satisfactory. The results of the study revealed that the attitudes toward science of the subjects were positive. Attitudes toward science of fifth grade students were significantly better than those of sixth grade students. On the other hand, science achievement of sixth grade students was significantly better than those of fifth grade students. However, no significant differences between male and female subjects on the ATSS and SAT scores were found. The correlations between attitudes toward science and science achievement and science academic achievement scores were low but significant. When the subjects were categorised into high, medium, and low groups according to ATSS scores, data analysis showed that students scored higher in ATSS performed significantly better on SAT and science academic achievement than those who scored lower. The relationships between attitudes toward science and student's background variables and school variables were also explored. The student's background variables investigated were whether raise small animals and plants at home or not, the most and least favorite subjects, perception of science class, willingness of learning science, willingness of participating extracurricular activities related to science, self perception of their own science achievement, time spent daily on homework and television-viewing, and frequency of reading extracurricular materials related to science. Data analysis showed that those variables were all closely related to students' attitudes toward science. However no significant correlations were found between amounts of time spent weekly on out-of-school science enrichment programs and students' attitudes toward science. Two school variables, namely, supply of resources related to science teaching and situation of science teaching, and science teacher's background correlated positively and significantly with students' attitudes toward science. Significant correlations were also found between students' attitudes toward science and several school variables, such as participation of related science activities in school, using laboratory and equipments, frequency of student-initiated questioning, frequency of doing laboratory demonstrations, and opportunity for students to do hands-on laboratory activities. In addition, several science teacher's background variables, such as years of teaching, subject matter knowledge, most favorite teaching subject, and interactions with colleagues were also found to correlate significantly with students' attitudes toward science. When using attitudes toward science as dependent variable, the results of stepwise multiple regression showed that eleven independent variables, including perception of science class, frequency of reading extracurricular materials related to science, willingness of learning science, willingness of participating extracurricular activities related to science, opportunity for students to do laboratory activities, self perception of their own science achievement, years of teaching, frequency of spent out-work time on preparation of science teaching, most favorite subject, whether or not participated extracurricular activities in school, and teachers' subject matter knowledge were significant predictors. Total variances explained were 53.6%. When science achievement(SAT) was used as dependent variable, the same regression analysis showed that thirteen independent variables were significant predictors. The results of this study not only will make significant contribution to the improvement of science teaching and assessment of attitudes toward science and science achievement in elementary schools, but also will provide valuable implications for the reforms of elementary science teacher education.