INVESTIGATING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE IN THE COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

The study investigated the attitude of teacher trainees towards the study of science in the Colleges of Education in Ghana. It looked at the students’ attitude from four main perspectives; their motivation (encouragement) to learn science, their interest (enjoyment) in science lessons, their level of involvement (participation) in science lessons, and the type of interpersonal relationship that exist between them and their science tutors. A twenty (20) - item questionnaire on a five-point Likert-type scale for students was used to collect data on students’ attitude towards science. The respondents consisted of one hundred and fifty (150) students from the Colleges of Education in Ghana, namely Foso College of Education, Enchi College of Education, and Komenda College of Education. The attitude of the students was determined by descriptive analysis by calculating the average (mean) score (X/N) for each dimension (i.e., sum score of items under a dimension, X divided by the total number of responded items, N for dimension). Since attitude students have towards science are influential in determining their performance in science, this study hoped to find out the extent to which students in the selected colleges of education possess the four positive attitudes measured in this study. The result produced indicated that the students possessed none of the positive attitudes towards the study of science