Over the past decades, a large body of research has examined students' magnitudes of evolution acceptance and related measurement issues resulting in questions concerning instruments' validity and operationalization. Until now, several studies investigated validity aspects of often-used evolution acceptance instruments and came to diverging…

The purpose of this study was to compare the ability of different instruments, independently developed and traditionally used for measuring science teachers' beliefs in short-term interventions, to longitudinally measure teachers' changing beliefs. We compared the ability of three self-report instruments (Science Teaching Efficacy Belief…

The aim of the present study is to enable future studies into students' attitudes toward science, and related constructs, by developing and validating an instrument suitable for cross-sectional designs. Following a thorough review of the literature it was determined that many extant instruments included design aspects that appeared to be limited…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and explain the origins of physics and chemistry teacher candidates' beliefs about teaching about ethics through socioscientific issues (SSI). This study utilized a series of in-depth interviews, while the participants (n = 12) were enrolled in a 9-month teacher education program at an urban…

Presents data on student attitudes (N=380) toward chemistry using the Student Opinion Survey in Chemistry (SOSC) and compares these data with those reported in H. Heikkinen's 1973 doctoral dissertation. The potential usefulness of using the SOSC in cross-national studies is also discussed. (Author/JN)

Describes the development of a revised Scientific Attitude Inventory (SAI II). Reports on a field test of the revised instrument. Concludes that the revised instrument is a significant improvement over the original. Appendix includes position statements and corresponding attitude statements. Contains 21 references. (Author/JRH)

Determined whether completing an environmental studies course affected the defensibility of environmental studies. The observed trend toward a more defensible attitude supports a hypothetical connection between cognitive/affective domains and suggests that student attitudes be examined for stronger attitudinal supports rather than attitude…

Explores how the Challenger experience influenced over 655 elementary boys' and girls' general attitudes toward science and space during the five months after their visit by examining their responses to four different attitude scales. Discusses positive outcomes and negative effects of the Challenger experience on children's attitude toward…

Agrees that the conceptual validity of the Scientific Attitude Inventory is suspect and a conceptual reanalysis of the distinction between "attitudes to science" and "scientific attitudes" is needed. However, inquiry into whether such instruments are developed consistently with formal criteria and theoretical guidelines of…

Explores the work done in revising and field testing the Scientific Attitude Instrument and raises doubts about the instrument's validity. Discusses consideration of approaches to validity, conceptual analysis of science attitude instruments, using other studies to establish validity, and guidelines for valid instruments. Contains 12 references.…

High school students were administered attitude tests with variations in wording (strong or mild) and stance (positive or negative). Resultant data showed that the positive versus negative item structure influenced student responses more than mild versus strong wording. (MLH)

Describes how student responses to 26 bipolar adjectives describing laboratory studies are used at a New Zealand university to modify the content of laboratory experiments in physics. (MLH)

Studied a group of high school biology, chemistry, and physics classes; concluded that there was no relationship between scientific attitudes and class size, but there was a significant improvement in achievement in smaller groups. (MLH)

Thurstone's Scale No. 30, Form A was used to survey attitudes of introductory college biology students (N=120) toward evolution. Results indicate the majority of these students believe in the theory of evolution. In addition, two demographic variables, sex and church influence, produced a significant correlation with the attitude scores.…