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Gkagkas & Hatzikraniotis, 2023
Gkagkas & Hatzikraniotis, 2023
HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS
V. Gkagkas, E. Hatzikraniotis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GREECE)
Abstract
In order to ascertain students' attitudes towards science, especially in experimental-based activities
such as inquiry-based activities, several research questionnaires can be found. One of them is the Test
of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA). This study was conducted to adapt to the Greek language and
school practice TOSRA questionnaire in terms of reliability and validity and also to detect Gender-related
and Grade-related differences between students’ attitudes toward Physics. Five out of seven scales
consisting of a 50-item original TOSRA instrument were translated into the Greek language and granted
to n=521 students, attending Grades 10 & 11. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was applied to the
data and analysis resulted in a 44-item questionnaire for the adapted Greek version. The fit indexes of
the adapted version of the Greek TOSRA questionnaire were found to be CMIN/DF=2.92, CFI=.974,
TLI=.973, GFI=.972, and RMSEA=.061 indicating a good fit to the model with a .933 overall alpha
coefficient (Cronbach's α reliability). None Gender-relative or Grade-relative differences in Attitudes
Towards Science were found, except on the “Enjoyment of Physics Lessons” scale where Grade 10
students demonstrated statistically significant better mean scores compared to Grade 11 students. The
findings of this study are consistent with similar studies.
Keywords: Science Education, Attitudes towards Science, Test of Scientific Related Attitudes (TOSRA),
Upper high school students.
1 INTRODUCTION
Science educators want their students to have positive attitudes toward science therefore promoting
science-related attitudes in science education is considered by them to be an important goal. Moreover,
there is high agreement among educators regarding the critical role that students' positive attitudes have
toward science [1]. Over the years the study of attitudes has raised the interest of many educationists
and psychologists, partly because they contribute as an important and capable parameter to positively
influence students' will to learn [2] but moreover because they are positively related to school
performance [3]. Although there is a widespread agreement that their promotion is an important aim of
science education, there is still quite an uncertainty about what meaning should be given to the term
“attitudes towards science”.
Some researchers place attitudes in the cognitive domain, others in the affective domain while others use
them interchangeably [4]. According to Osborne et al. [4], attitudes as seen from the cognitive perspective,
include the processing of information for the construction of meaning and knowledge, while attitudes as
seen from the affective perspective, include students’ feelings and perceptions during their learning
process. In this study, attitudes towards science are perceived as emotional reactions (favorable or not) of
students towards school subjects, teachers, or science in general [5], [6] therefore attitudes are placed in
the affective domain. The other categorization (cognitive domain) includes the «scientific attitudes» that
are defined as specific ways of thinking that scientists have adopted in their daily lives (open-mindedness,
honesty, and skepticism) and have their basis in daily scientific practice [7].
Regarding attitudes toward science, there is general agreement that they are based on a
multidimensional construct that consists of various aspects and is perceived as emotional reactions
driven by feelings, beliefs, and values [5] and include among others (a) students’ perceptions of the
teacher, (b) the fear of failure, (c) the learning value of Science, (d) the enjoyment of learning Science,
and (e) the teaching classroom environment [5]. Attitudes also can be grouped into two major categories
known as endogenous and exogenous factors [8], [9]. Klopfer [10] provided a different construct of
attitudes towards science that is also placed in the affective domain and consists of six emotional
categories which are; (a) attitudes toward science and scientists, (b) acceptance of scientific inquiry as
a way of thinking, (c) adoption of scientific attitudes, (d) enjoyment of science learning experiences, (e)
interest in science-related activities, and (f) interest in a science-related career.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.2 Participants
The final sample to which the Greek version of the questionnaire was administered was 521 students
who came from three different geographical regions of Greece. 308 students (59%) were attending the
first Grade of public upper high school (Year 10 students), while the rest 213 (41%) were attending the
second Grade (Year 11 students). 271 students (52%) have declared themselves of male gender, 240
(46%) as female, and 10 (2%) as “non-binary”. The students in the sample were of mixed performance
and belonged to a medium socio-economic level. The sample had the convenience of access and
therefore is a “non-probability” sample.
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2.3 Survey Administration
The questionnaire administration procedures were consistent with those stated by Fraser [12] and the
questionnaire was administered in the middle of the 2021-2022 school year. Before beginning to
complete the questionnaire, the students were informed about the purpose of the research and called
to participate voluntarily without any benefit or compensation. Also, the headmasters of each school unit
had been written informed about the purpose of this research and had given their consent. The
completion of each questionnaire was anonymous and each student could withdraw at any time. Also,
brief explanations were given on how to complete the Likert-type scale to ensure that the students would
understand the correct completion of the test. Students were also encouraged to ask questions during
the survey to minimize any misunderstanding they may have had about completing the questionnaire
and also to reduce any chance of leaving questions unanswered. There was no time limit for completing
the questionnaire, and the average completion time of the questionnaire was about 30 minutes long,
which is in line with the time limits reported by Fraser [12].
3 RESULTS
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Table 1. The Cronbach-α values for each scale (N=521).
The 50-item, 5-scale model, Greek TOSRA questionnaire was further analyzed with Confirmatory Factor
Analysis, using the JASP statistical software (ver. 0.16.4). After the examination of the CMIN/DF, CFI,
TLI, GFI, RMSEA fit indexes, and to further improve the model, a cutoff value of λik ≥ .4 was adopted
[19]. This approach led to omitting from the analysis 2 questions from Factor 1: Attitude to Scientific
Inquiry (Q11 & Q26) and 4 questions from Factor 2: Adoption of Scientific Attitudes (Q2, Q22, Q37 &
Q47). Thus, the Greek version of the TOSRA questionnaire consists of 44 questions. The fit indexes to
the theoretical model were found to be CMIN/DF=2,92, CFI=.974, TLI=.973, GFI=.972, RMSEA=.061
indicating a good fit to the model.
“Table 2” shows the mean correlation with other scales (Discriminant Validity) as calculated from CFA
along with corresponding values found in the original paper from Fraser, 1981 [12], although the sample
of the current study was Years 10-11. The mean scale correlation with other scales had values that
ranged between .44 and .57. These values differ from Fraser’s questionnaire which are quite moderate
with a range between .13 and .40. Although the “Attitude to Scientific Inquiry” scale had the lowest value
(.44) similar to Fraser’s lowest (.13), the highest value was for “Enjoyment of Physics Lessons” scale
(.57) while Fraser’s highest is for “Career Interest in Science” scale.
Table 2. Reliability and Mean Correlation with Other Scales (Discriminant Validity) for the Greek Adapted
version of the TOSRA questionnaire.
Also, Factor Covariances were calculated “Table 3” and the structural model plot was built “Fig.1”.
According to our findings, five factors are strongly correlated i.e., “Attitude to Scientific Inquiry” with
“Adoption of Scientific Attitudes” (.75), “Attitude to Scientific Inquiry” with ”Enjoyment of Physics
Lessons” (.73), “Adoption of Scientific Attitudes” with “Enjoyment of Physics Lessons” (.81), “Enjoyment
of Physics Lessons” (E) with “Leisure Interest in Science” (L) (.70), and “Leisure Interest in Science” (L)
with “Career Interest in Science” (C) (.81). Also, three other factors have a moderate correlation i.e.,
“Adoption of Scientific Attitudes” with “Leisure Interest in Science” (.60), “Adoption of Scientific Attitudes”
with “Career Interest in Science” (.59), and “Enjoyment of Physics Lessons” with “Career Interest in
Science” (.63).
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Figure 1. Structural Model Plot from CFA analysis with Standardized Estimates (N=521). Standardized factor
loadings and correlations. I: Attitude to Scientific Inquiry, A: Adoption of Scientific Attitudes, Ε: Enjoyment of Physics
Lessons, (L) Leisure Interest in Science, (C) Career Interest in Science, Qxx: questionnaire item; exx: error term.
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Table 3. The Factor Covariances of the CFA model.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This study listed the results of the Greek adaptation on five out of seven TOSRA scales from the original
Fraser’s TOSRA questionnaire [12]. Studying the findings of the statistical analyzes (Cronbach's α
reliability, mean correlation with other scales, discriminant validity), it can be concluded that the Greek
version of the TOSRA questionnaire has a moderate to good fit to the predetermined theoretical
structure which has been described by Fraser [12].
More specifically, after omitting 6 items from the original 50-item TOSRA questionnaire for model
improvement purposes, a final five-scale, 44-item TOSRA questionnaire arose with a .933 overall alpha
coefficient (Cronbach's α reliability). The values of mean correlation with other scales (Discriminant
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Validity) were quite moderate and ranged from .44 to .57. The fit indexes that were extracted from CFA
analysis were found to be CMIN/DF=2.92, CFI=.974, TLI=.973, GFI=.972, and RMSEA=.061 indicating
a good fit to the model. These upper values are quite consistent with Fraser’s findings [12]. Μore
specifically, Fraser found a mean Cronbach's α reliability for Year 10 students on the corresponding
scales with this study, equal to .852. Also, the values of mean correlation with other scales (Discriminant
Validity) ranged from .13 to .40. Other studies like ours, report similar findings to our study as well, with
higher factor correlations [20] and higher factor covariances [21, [22], [23] than Fraser’s original
instrument. Also, some of the studies tend to merge the overlapping scales into one scale for the TOSRA
questionnaire to be adapted meaningfully to each study [21]. These findings, being different from the
original TOSRA adapted questionnaire, could depend on the students’ cultural differences, different age
groups, and possibly the different School Practices that Natural Sciences, especially Physics, are being
taught between different nations.
Also, this study didn’t find any statistical Gender-relative or Grade-relative differences in Attitudes
Towards Science, except for one case where the students’ sample from Grade 10 (M = 4.01, SD = .75)
compared to the students’ sample from Grade 11 (M = 3.80, SD = .90) demonstrated statistical
significantly better mean scores in the scale “Enjoyment of Physics Lessons”, t(400.392) = 2.73, p = .006
with a 95% confidence interval from .06 to .35. Some other studies, which use an adapted version of
TOSRA instrument, report mixed results in which gender relates to attitudes towards science sometimes
in favor of the males and sometimes in favor of the females, similarly sometimes for the Grades or grade
[24], [25], [23], [26].
Further research on Greek students' attitudes towards science with the TOSRA questionnaire is
recommended for the reliability and validity of the questionnaire to be further strengthened. It is worth
emphasizing that this study focused on upper High School students (Year 10-11 students) so it is
recommended that further adaptation should be conducted at different grades as well.
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