Differential effects of science attitudes and science achievement in Australia, Cyprus, and the USA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ‘locality’ of the relationship between attitudes towards science, self‐beliefs and science achievement for senior high school students in Australia, Cyprus and the USA. These relationships were examined with the use of the structural equation modeling software, AMOS. The data for this study were obtained from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study database. The results of this study demonstrated the differential effects that science achievement and science attitudes can have on each other, depending on the characteristics of the educational systems within each of country. Furthermore, these findings provide a number of directions for further research.