Seeding science success : relations of secondary students' science self-concepts and motivation with aspirations and achievement

In the contemporary world, every sphere of life has been revolutionised by science. As such, science understanding is an increasingly precious resource throughout the world (Aschbacher, Li, and Roth, 2010). Further, as science knowledge is contestable, continuously subject to revision, refinement, and extension (Ferrari, 2011), the dissemination and digestion of new scientific knowledge is very important. Despite the widely recognised need for better science education, the numbers of students pursuing science continue to decline internationally, and the percentage of school students studying science is particularly low (Hannover and Kessels, 2004; Birrell, Edwards, Dobson, and Smith, 2005). Alarmingly, in Australia, the number of Year 12 students studying any science subject has plummeted from 94 per cent to just over 50 per cent in the past 20 years, and according to the available data enrolments are still falling (McDougall, 2011). This has resulted in a lack of qualified people for employment in science-related jobs. This in turn threatens our ability to continue to build an innovative economy that is competitive internationally. Past research has shown that the decline in science enrolments is related to many interrelated factors, such as: students’ academic abilities, teaching methods, the absence of motivation to study science, and a lack of interest in science subjects (Hassan and Treagust, 2003). Students’ self-concepts, motivation, and aspirations could also be related to the decline in the number of students seeking to pursue science. However, there is a dearth of research investigating relations among students’ science self-concepts, motivation, aspirations, and achievement in different science domains. The present investigation aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating the relations among the multi-dimensional facets of secondary students’ science self-concepts, motivation, aspirations, and achievement. Given the advantages of a mixed-methods approach (Buber, Gadner, and Richards, 2004) this research comprises three inter-related synergistic studies. Study 1 aims to develop a psychometrically sound tool to measure secondary students’ science self-concepts, motivation, and aspirations in biology, chemistry, earth and environmental methodology to explicate students’ and teachers’ views, practices, and personal experiences, to identify the barriers to undertaking science for secondary students and to provide rich insights into the relations of secondary students’ science self-concepts and motivation with their aspirations and achievement. Study 3 will detect additional issues that may not necessarily be identifiable from the quantitative findings of Study 2. The psychometric properties of the newly developed instrument demonstrated that students’ science self-concepts were domain specific, while science motivation and science aspirations were not. Students’ self-concepts in general science, chemistry, and physics were stronger for males than females. Students’ self-concepts in general science and biology became stronger for students in higher years of secondary schooling. Students’ science motivation did not vary across gender and year levels. Though students’ science aspirations did not vary across gender, they became stronger with age. In general, students’ science self-concepts and science motivation were positively related to science aspirations and science achievement. Specifically, students’ year level, biology self-concept, and physics self concept predicted their science and career aspirations. Biology self-concept predicted teacher ratings of students’ achievement, and students’ general science self-concepts predicted their achievement according to students’ ratings. Students’ year level and intrinsic motivation in science were predictors of their science aspirations, and intrinsic motivation was a greater significant predictor of students’ achievement, according to student ratings. Based upon students’ and teachers’ perceptions, the identified barriers to promoting science in schools were: the difficulty of the subject matter, lack of student interest, the large amount of subject content, lack of perceived relevance of the subject matter to day-to-day life, ineffective teacher characteristics, lack of aspirations to pursue science as a career, inadequate teaching methods, lack of adequate teacher training, lack of proper policies to reward science teachers, and inadequate support for science from the media. Overall, the results from this study provide a greater understanding of the relations of secondary students’ science self-concepts and motivation with aspirations and achievement in different science domains across gender and age levels. Hence, this research makes a valuable contribution to the literature by providing new insight. The findings will be useful for science educators in planning and developing science curriculum and policies with regard to student self-concepts and motivation. Equally, science teachers may find implications for classroom practices, for the planning and conducting of science lessons, for conveying scientific concepts and principles to students more effectively, and in considering the need to generate enthusiasm about the subject in young science students. Thus, the findings may offer the necessary strategies to assist in reducing the decline of students’ enrolments in science through efficacious attention to student self-concepts and motivation. The newly developed instrument provides a new opportunity for future research to confidently interrogate the psychosocial issues central to science education and promotion