Showing papers in "School Science and Mathematics in 1993"

High School Students' Views About the Nature of Science

Abstract: This study examined high school students' views of the nature of science. A stratified random sample of 32 students chosen from nine schools in eastern and central Newfoundland were interviewed on an individual basis. The interviews were semi-structured and were administered in general accordance with an interview guide. The transcripts were reduced to a set of individualized conceptual inventories. The frequency of occurrence of each representative statement was tallied and tabulated. A number of general trends were identified. Most students were found to have difficulty establishing the domain of science although many tended to view the practice of science as cumulative. Although the majority of the sample asserted that scientific information was tentative and provisional, they tended to regard factual information in science to be absolute and irrefutable. Scientific theories appeared to be only understood in a naive sense in that most subjects regarded theories as suggested explanations for fairly discrete events as opposed to elaborate interpretive frameworks. In accordance with previously documented evidence (Aikenhead, 1987) many subjects were found to equate the term "scientific law" with the more common legal usage of the word. Finally, elements of what Nadeau and Desautels (1984) term as naive realism, blissful empiricism, credulous experimentalism and excessive rationalism were found to be quite prevalent in the transcripts.

Impacting the Science Attitudes of Minority High School Youth

Abstract: A study involving urban, minority high school students in a supplemental education program was conducted during 1989 to test the null hypothesis that no relationship exists between exposure to program activities and changes in mathematics performance or attitude towards science. The treatment activities integrated science, with language arts, mathematics, computers and counseling and enabled students to discuss matters of concern and the relationship of these concerns to their academic work and to future success in careers based in science and mathematics. Mathematics performance data were analyzed using ANOVA (premath X group, postmath X group), and t-test/pairs (premath vs. postmath). Pre- and postreatment data on attitude towards science were rank ordered, paired and analyzed using the Wilcoxin Matched-Pairs Signed Ranks Test. The findings reveal a significantly positive treatment effect. In spite of the caution suggested by the limited sample, exposure to the treatment has resulted in an increased positive effect, not only upon attitude towards science, but also upon mathematics performance.