Student attitudes

Students were asked how much they agree with eight statements about learning science (listed in Table 18 – positive and negative statements were interwoven in the questionnaire but are reordered here for easier reading). They were given four response options: agree a lot, agree a little, disagree a little, disagree a lot.

Students were generally positive about science with 84 percent agreeing that they enjoy learning science and 78 percent disagreeing that science was boring. The majority of students agreed that they would like to do more science in school (81%). This is similar to the National Educational Monitoring Project (NEMP) findings at the Year 4 level, where 71 percent of students indicated that they would like to do more science (Crooks, Smith & Flockton, 2008).¹ In contrast with this positive response, around four in every ten students agreed that science was harder for them than for many of their classmates.

Table 18: Proportion of students who responded positively to statements about learning science

Note:
The values for agree combine student responses to ‘agree a lot’ and ‘agree a little’. Similarly the values for disagree combine ‘little’ and ‘a lot’.
Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Generally, students with positive attitudes towards science had higher achievement than students with negative attitudes. In order to examine the relationship with achievement, the international researchers combined the data in two indices: the index of students’ positive affect toward science and the index of students’ self-confidence in learning science.

Index of students’ positive affect toward science

The three statements: I enjoy learning science; science is boring; and I like science; were combined to form the index of students’ positive affect toward science (PATS).² Three-quarters of the students were at the high level of this index; that is, on average, they were positive about science. Eleven percent of students were at the low level of the index; that is, on average, they were negative about science. These proportions have not changed since 1994. As shown in Figure 19 students who were more positive about science (at the high level of the PATS index) had higher mean science achievement than those that were more negative. There was no difference between those at the medium and low levels of the index.

Figure 19: Proportion and mean science achievement of students at each level of the positive affect toward science (PATS) index

Note:
The bars on the graph represent the proportions of Year 5 students while the points represent mean scores. Lines extending from the points represent the 95% confidence interval, i.e. the range within which we are 95 percent confident that the true population value lies.
Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

In relation to other countries, relatively low proportions of New Zealand students were at the high level of the PATS index. That is, few students reported positive attitudes towards science in comparison to their international counterparts. However, this proportion was the same as the United States, Chinese Taipei, Austria, and Singapore (all 75%). England had a lower proportion of students who responded positively to these statements (59% at the high level of the PATS index).

Index of students’ self-confidence in learning science

The four statements: I usually do well in science; science is harder for me than for many of my classmates; I am just not good at science; and I learn things quickly in science; were combined to form the index of students’ self-confidence in learning science (SCS).³ Just over half (51%) of the students were at the high level of this index; that is, on average, they were positive about their own abilities in science. Twelve percent of students were at the low level of the index; that is, on average, they were negative about their abilities in science.

The proportions of the students at all levels of the index have changed significantly since 2002. More students are now positive about their abilities to learn science (15 percentage point increase), but also more students are negative about their abilities to learn science (7 percentage point increase). Fewer students are, therefore, at the medium level of the index.

As shown in Figure 20, students who were more positive about their abilities to learn science (at the high level of the SCS index) had higher mean science achievement than those that were more negative. Those students with the lowest self-confidence had the lowest achievement on average. Note that the difference in mean science achievement between students that were high and those that were low on the SCS index (66 scale score points) is greater than those in the respective groups on the PATS index (33 scale score points). Thus the self-confidence of students had a stronger relationship with science achievement than having a positive attitude towards science.

Figure 20: Proportion and mean science achievement of students at each level of the students’ self-confidence in learning science (SCS) index

Note:
The bars on the graph represent the proportions of Year 5 students while the points represent mean scores. Lines extending from the points represent the 95% confidence interval, i.e. the range within which we are 95 percent confident that the true population value lies.
Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

In relation to other countries, very low proportions of New Zealand students were at the high level of the SCS index. However this proportion was similar to those for Hong Kong SAR (52%) and Japan (53%). In comparison, the United States had a much larger proportion of students who responded positively to these statements about their abilities in science (69% at the high level of the SCS index).

Attitudes to science by gender

Boys and girls demonstrated very similar attitudes to science. Around three-quarters of girls and boys were very positive about science and were at the high level of the PATS index (76% and 75% respectively). Around half of girls and boys reported confidence in their science abilities and were at the high level of the SCS index (50% and 51% respectively).

Attitudes to science by ethnicity

Some differences were evident among the ethnic groupings when attitudes to science were considered. More students in the Other ethnic grouping reported positive attitudes to science and were at the high level of the PATS index (82% compared with 76% of Pākehā/European, 75% of Asian, 74% of Pasifika, and 73% of Māori). There were no significant differences in the proportion of students at the high level of the index when Pākehā/European, Asian, Pasifika, and Māori students were compared.

More Pākehā/European students and students in the Other ethnic grouping reported higher levels of self-confidence and were at the high level of the SCS index (55% and 53% respectively) compared with their Asian, Māori, and Pasifika counterparts (46%, 44%, and 42% respectively). There were no significant differences in the proportion of students at the high level of the index when Asian, Pasifika, and Māori students were compared.