The Attitudes Toward Science scale revisited: Attitudes and beliefs about science as a multidimensional composition

• In Event: Roundtable Session 64
  In Roundtable Session: Influences on Teaching Science

Abstract

The Attitudes Toward Science scale, developed by Francis and Greer (1999), was examined from an attitude versus beliefs perspective using data obtained from the Science-in-the-Moment study (Schmidt & Smith, 2008). Although Francis and Greer (p. 220) found that the scale “operationalizes the affective attitudinal domain independently of the behavioral and cognitive dimensions,” the current paper argues that this instrument does not manifest itself as a unidimensional structure, but, instead, as a multidimensional composition. Results from a factor analysis indicated that the scale consisted of two distinct clusters of items that measured two different factors: student attitudes toward science and their beliefs about science.

Authors

• M Cecil Smith, West Virginia University

• David A. Walker, Northern Illinois University

• Nigorahon Ismailovna Hamidova, Nothern Illinois University