Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ experiences and attitudes toward science class in the context of a Science and Technology Education (STE) Curriculum for Grades 1 to 9 in Taiwan. This paper focuses on students’ experiences and attitudes toward the teaching, content and assessment in the science class. The development of a questionnaire was based on information gathered by group interviews and a preliminary questionnaire. The preliminary questionnaire was further administered to 73 students in grade seven. Then, 2,761 of seventh grade students completed the final questionnaire in June, 2003, which had a Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.98. In addition, individual interviews followed with a representative sample of six students. It was found that students experienced and preferred doing experiments, questioning and thinking in their current science classes. They also perceived and favored that science content taught in the current classroom was relevant to everyday life and covered more history of science. Furthermore, students experienced different kinds of alternative assessment, such as peer review, reports and experiments. They held positive attitudes toward these assessments. However, students also experienced some traditional tasks, e.g. taking a lot of notes, citing textbooks without further explanation and taking hard tests. They held different attitudes toward these classroom practices. The results of this research study can be used as a referent for improving science teaching practices and curriculum materials.
| Keywords: | attitudes toward science; experience of science; Science and Technology Education curriculum for grades 1 to 9 |
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