Students’ Attitude towards Biology in Secondary Schools in Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

In this age of science and technology, the world is facing geographical challenges, whereasthe future nation builders are losing their interest even in science subjects, especially, inbiology. There are numerous factors that contributed towards students’ success in a particularsubject but the most important one is their attitude towards that subject. The focus of thepresent study was to investigate the attitude of students towards Biology in SecondarySchools in Islamabad. The population of this study comprised all 10th grade Biology studentsin different institutions in Islamabad. Owing to the shortage of time, the researcher selected506 students (from six public and four private schools) as a convenience sample for this study.These students were administered through a valid and reliable instrument known as “BiologyAttitude Scale” (BAS) developed by the researcher. The study used a 5-point Likert type scaleto measure students’ attitude towards Biology on seven dimensions: “Interest in Biology”,“Career in Biology”, “Importance of Biology”, “Biology Teacher”, “Difficulty in Biology”,“Equipment use in Biology” and “Methodology of Biology”. Students’ attitude toward Biologywas analyzed by using the mean score of an individual statement. The findings of the studyrevealed that overall students showed a positive attitude towards Biology. Female studentsexhibited a positive attitude as compared to male students. Similarly, students in publicschools showed a positive attitude toward students of private schools.