ROSE and NonROSE students’ perceptions of five psychosocial dimensions of their science practical activities

Abstract

This study compared the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE) students’ and nonROSE students’ perceptions of five psychosocial dimensions of their science practical tasks: Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Rule Clarity and Material Environment. The sample comprised 177 ROSE and 223 nonROSE Jamaican students, 230 and 170 of them were 8th and 9th graders respectively, 209 were boys and 191 were girls. The Actual Form of Fraser, Giddings and McRobbie’s (1995) Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) was adapted and used as an instrument. The results indicated that the students’ perceptions were relatively favourable; ROSE students had significantly better perceptions of Open-Endedness and Material Environment than nonROSE students; the girls had significantly better perceptions of all the dimensions (except Open-Endedness) than the boys; ROSE girls’ and boys’ perceptions of Open-Endedness were significantly better than those of nonROSE students; grades 8 and 9 students’ perceptions were not statistically significantly different.