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Major Influences on Attitudes Toward Science
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2004
Year
Science EducationEducational PsychologyScience TeachingTeacher-student RelationEducationEarly Childhood EducationAttitudes Toward ScienceEducation ResearchElementary EducationSocial SciencesPsychologyStem EducationScience StudyStudent CultureRecent Timss DataScientific LiteracySchool PsychologySchool ClimateTeacher AttitudesScience And Technology StudiesEducational Background
This research study investigated the attitudes toward science of 8th-grade students in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, and Korea, based on recent TIMSS data, and suggests a model of family and school influences on their attitudes. The structural equation model contained 3 exogenous constructs – family’s educational background, aspiration, school climate – and 2 endogenous constructs – teaching and student attitudes toward science. Educational background, aspiration, and school climate were shown to have a direct effect on attitudes, while teaching was shown to directly affect attitudes and to be affected by aspiration and school climate.