Some studies have reported for the case of Iberoamerica [1] that the majority of students do not have direct interest in the study of the exact and natural sciences, although the engineering ones have better acceptance, the greater tendency is towards the Social Sciences. There are many factors that determine this disinterest and its articulation is quite complex, however it is necessary to study them to have relevant information that could be taken into account for the design of effective strategies that contribute to improve this situation. One of the critical aspects is the students' attitude towards the learning of science which is associated with their conceptions of science. The promotion of favorable attitudes toward science and technology is one of the priority objectives of scientific education. The aim of this study is to assess the attitude towards chemistry and its learning in first year students of sciences and engineering of a Peruvian university. For this purpose, the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) for use in Chemistry was used. CLASS was designed to assess students' beliefs about chemistry and its learning by adapting an early version of the instrument designed to assess these attitudes in physics. The original version consists of 50 items for which a five-level Likert scale is available [2]. In this study, a 36-item version was used, according to the results of the psychometric evaluation of the instrument [3]. This version was translated into Spanish and validated before its application for the purposes of the study.
References
[1] Polino, C. “Las ciencias en el aula y el interés por las carreras científico-tecnológicas: Un análisis de las expectativas de los alumnos de nivel secundario en Iberoamérica”, Revista Iberoamericana de Educación, 2012, Vol. 58, 167-191.
[2] Vázquez, A. and Manassero, M.A. “En defensa de las actitudes y emociones en la educación científica (I): evidencias y argumentos generales”, Revista Eureka sobre Enseñanza y Divulgación de las Ciencias, 2007, Vol. 4 (2), 247-271.
[3] Kurbanoglu, N. I. and Akin, A. “The Relationships between University Students’ Chemistry Laboratory. Anxiety, Attitudes, and Self-Efficacy Beliefs”, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2010, 35 (8), 48-59.
[4] Eddy, R. M. “Chemophobia in the college classroom: Extent, sources, and students characteristics”, Journal of Chemical Education, 2000, Vol 77 (4), 514–517.
[5] Barnes, G.; McInerney, D. M. and Marsh, H. S. “Exploring sex differences in science enrolment intentions: An application of the General Model of Academic Choice”, The Australian Educational Researcher, 2005, Vol. 32 (2), 1-23.
[6] Cheung, D. “Students' attitudes toward chemistry lessons: The interaction effect between grade level and gender”, Research in Science Education, 2009, Vol. 39, 75–91.
[7] Barbera, J., Adams, W., Wieman, C. and Perkins, K. “Modifying and validating the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science survey for use in chemistry”, Journal of Chemical Education, 1988, Vol. 85 (10), 1435-1439.
[8] Adams, W., Perkins, K., Podolefski, N., Dubson, M., Finkelstein, N. and Wieman, C. “New instrument for measuring student beliefs about physics and learning physics: The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey”, Physics Education Research, 2006, Vol. 2, 2-15.
[9] Heredia, K. and Lewis, J. “A psychometric evaluation of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science survey for use in chemistry”, Journal of Chemical Education, 2012, Vol. 89, 436-441.
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