Science-related Attitudes And Science Achievement Of Form Three Students In Fully Residental Science Schools in Kelantan

This study attempted to investigate the correlation between science achievement and science attitudes among 218 form three students of two fully residential science schools in Kelantan. Corollary, it attempted to determine (1) whether gender, SES, school and home settings will moderate the relationship;(2)whether science attitude factors will significantly explain the variance in science
achievement; and (3) which science attitude factor will best predict science achievement. Previous studies on the correlation between science attitudes and science achievement are well documented in Malaysia and elsewhere. However, this study is the first attempt to investigate the relationship in fully residential schools in Malaysia. The interest to conduct the study was based on the present national pronouncements, in line with the sixth challenge of Vision 2020, to promote science and technology development as a precondition for the realisation of
Malaysia’s dream to become a fully industrialised nation. The results of this study were intended to provide insights for that possibility. This study investigated science achievement from the results obtained from
the mid-term examinations conducted in Sekolah Menengah Sains Machang and Sekolah Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra. While this examination result may not capture the totality of science achievement, it is recognised as a good predictor for the performance of the students for the Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR) Examination. Three science attitude components were examined: (1) attitudes towards science subjects; (2) attitude towards science teachers and (3) attitudes towards the social implications of science. The instrument was based on the Attitude Questionnaire developed by Skurnik, LS and Jeffs, P.M. (1970). The instrument was pretested for validity and reliability, the results of which yielded a reliability Cronbach Alpha of 0.9348. The data were analysed with the aid of descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviations); Pearson Correlation, Chisquare, T-test, Linear Regression Analysis and Stepwise Regression. The level of significance was set a priori at 0.05. The questionnaires were administered to all the 218 students. The population was used as sample since the number was relatively small and manageable. A response rate of 100 % was obtained since the researcher personally administered and collected the questionnaires with the support of the
school principals and officials of the Boarding School Unit, School Division of Ministry of Education. The 218 respondents consisted of 140 males and 78 females; 59 high SES, 100 average SES and 59 low SES; 66 from urban and 152 from rural home settings and 99 from urban and 119 from rural school settings. The investigation of the data generated the following results: (1)There is no significant correlation between science achievement and science attitudes (composite scores); (2) Science achievement is positively and significantly correlated with attitudes towards science subjects and attitudes towards the social implications of science among female students, but not among their male counterparts; the difference between the males and females is not significant; (3)Science achievement is negatively and not significantly correlated with attitudes towards science teachers; (4) Science achievement is positively and significantly correlated with science attitudes towards science subjects and the social implications of science for the high and low SES groups but negatively and
significantly correlated for the average SES group. The differences between the high and low SES groups were significant; (5) Correlation between science achievement and attitudes towards the social implications of science is positive and significant for rural-home based students, but not for urban-home based students; (6) Science attitudes significantly explained the variance in science achievement. However only 6.22% was explained significantly by science attitudes. Demographic characteristics significantly explained only 1.80% of the variance. It appears that 92 % of the variance are attributable to factors not explored in this study; (7) The best predictor for science achievement is attitude towards the social implications of science; (8) There is no significant difference in the correlation for attitudes between male and female students. High positive attitudes were registered except towards science teachers; (9) The most significant correlation between science achievement and science attitude was noted for attitudes towards
the social implications of science. The weak, but not significant correlation between science achievement and
science attitudes is significant considering the registration of high positive attitudes among the respondents. The high achievers foresee the pursuit of science-related courses in the university. This bears implications to the sixth challenge of Vision 2020. The findings that achievement of female students correlated highly with science attitudes tend to indicate the growing popularity of science among female students - a phenomenon that needs further study. The negative attitude of students towards science teachers must be examined and be made a subject for further research. The finding that low SES rural-home based students registered more positive attitudes towards science bears implication to education policies specifically in the widening of opportunities for
access to science residential schools and the opening of opportunities for financial support for the less privileged members of society. The study was limited to two residential science schools and the mid-term performance of the students and, therefore, the results could not be generalised for all fully residential science school students. It is, therefore, recommended that a
nation-wide study of all the 33 fully residential science schools be conducted with the inclusion of all science achievement factors.