Slovakian Students’ Attitudes toward Biology

Abstract

Students’ attitudes toward science significantly alter their achievement in science. Therefore, identification and influence of attitudes became to be an essential part of educational research. This study has been initiated by the idea that; research in students’ attitudes toward science often involves science in general, but particular disciplines like biology or chemistry have been overlooked. Thus, this study is about Slovak students’ attitude toward biology through six dimensions; interest, career, importance, teacher, equipment and difficulty. The study used a 30-item Biology Attitude Questionnaire (BAQ) to measure students’ attitudes toward biology education. The data were obtained from 655 secondary school students attending eight typical elementary schools in Slovakia. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed a negative effect of age whereas the effect of gender was not significant. Univariate results, on the other hand, indicated that there is a significant interaction of students’ interest in relation with grade and gender. One of the findings of the study is that, students’ attitude toward biology teacher is strongly affected by teacher identity. This can be taken as a hint for future research. That effect of teacher should be included as a parameter to be considered for the studies related to student attitude.