A Study of the Eighth Graders’ Attitudes toward Science Learning in Taiwan

[[abstract]]Investigated were the eighth graders’ attitudes toward science learning in 2006 for understanding the increase of 20% of students who answered that they did not like science from the findings of TIMSS 1999 and TIMSS 2003 in Taiwan and factors which were correlated with the students’ preference of science learning. Twenty classes (N=615) were stratified randomly selected from the eighth-grade students in Taipei city, Taipei county and Miaoli county. Items of attitude questionnaire were selected from TIMSS 1999 and TIMSS 2003 students’ questionnaires. Science Achievement test was constructed from the released TIMSS test items. Both instruments had been evaluated by the experts and the reliabilities ( Cronbach α ) were .84 and .86 respectively. Data were analyzed through frequencies, Pearson correlations and Chi-square test by SPSS for Windows. Results indicated that 1) the words in questionnaire to ask students’ preference of science learning by “science” ( in TIMSS 1999 ) or “physical science” ( in TIMSS 2003) did make significant difference in 2006 students answers ( χ2 =27.3, p<.01); 2) comparisons of students’ answers between 2006 and 1999 by word “science” and 2006 and 2003 by the word “physical science” respectively, the results indicated that students’ preference of science learning continuously drop; 3) factors which were significantly correlated to 2006 students’ preference of science learning were “ students self-confidence and image of science learning”, “students’ self-confidence and image of learning physical science” , “students’ ideas about physical science”, “students ideas about nature science”, “activities which happen often in their science classes”, “opinions of their relatives and themselves about that they should be good in science”, “activities which happen often and the application of computers in their physical science” “science achievement”. Recommendations were as follows: 1) deep interview to understand students’ thinking of science learning and find out the reasons that students’ preference of science learning continuously drop; 2) further studies to find out the reasons that the item “I like to learn physical science” higher correlations with other items than “ I like to learn science”.