Students’ attitudes toward chemistry, environmental protection and information technology in a bilingual vocational secondary school in Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

ABSTRACT Students’ attitudes toward science are complex phenomena depending on numerous factors. The factors studied in this work are students’ interest in science, their enjoyment of science lessons and career interest in science. Our objective was to investigate the attitudes of students based on these factors. The main question was whether the students enrolled in a bilingual vocational secondary school for chemistry, environmental protection and information technology had chosen the institution and their professional field according to their personal interests and whether this interest was independent of age and gender. Surveys were conducted in two academic years (2015–2016 and 2017–2018) among students from grade 0 or 9–12. Three factors of the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) questionnaire and self-constructed questions were used and analysed in our research. The results for the self-composed factors of our questionnaire provided evidence to state that the choice of school and that of profession is based on personal scientific interest of students. We have found a negative relationship among TOSRA items and age; regarding gender, there are differences among chemists and IT specialists.