Abstract
In the present study, the Attitudes Toward Biology Scale (ATBS) was employed to investigate the attitudes toward biology of seventh grade students in the Taipei area. The relationships between students’ attitudes toward biology and gender, biology ability, scientific attitudes, science process skills, and logical reasoning ability were explored. The results showed that no significant differences were found between the subjects of rural Taipei and Taipei city on the scores of scientific attitudes, science process skills, and logical reasoning ability. However, subjects from rural of Taipei performed significantly better than subjects of Taipei city on biology ability. No significant differences were found between male and female subjects on the measures of attitudes toward biology, biology ability, and science process skills. Female subjects scored significantly higher than male subjects on scientific attitudes, but male subjects scored significantly higher than female subjects on logical reasoning ability. The attitudes toward biology of students correlated positively with biology ability, scientific attitudes, science process skills, and logical reasoning ability, with correlation coefficients were 0.36, 0.27, 0.25, and 0.20, respectively. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted using attitudes toward biology and biology ability as dependent variables, respectively. When attitudes toward biology were the dependent variables, the regression results showed that five independent variables, namely, biology ability, biology academic achievement score, semester average score, sex, and scientific attitudes of students were significant predictors. Five independent variables explained about 17% of the total variance. When biology ability was the dependent variable, the regression results showed that five independent variables, namely, biology academic achievement score, scientific attitudes, science process skills, attitudes toward biology, and logical reasoning ability, were significant predictors. Five independent variables explained about 62% of the total variance.
| Keywords: | biology ability; scientific attitudes; science process skills; attitudes toward biology; logical reasoning ability |
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