Community College Students’ Attitudes toward Postsecondary Science Education

Abstract

Students in the United States are avoiding taking the higher level science courses in secondary and postsecondary academic institutions (Ball, 2000; Braund & Reiss, 2006; Lee & Frank, 1990). There are many careers that do not require students to take those higher level science courses; therefore, students avoid registering for those classes (Madigan, 1997). Many students, however, are pursing science-related degrees and/or certification from community colleges; however, lack the academic foundations to succeed in science. The purpose of this study was to identify community college students’ attitudes toward postsecondary science education and the relationship of their attitudes toward their academic achievement in postsecondary science. This study examined community college students that were registered in community college science course. Community college students were examined by answering 47 questions on the instrument, Attitudes Toward Science/ Learning Science. The instrument was composed of thirty-eight Likert items, eight demographic items, and 1 closed-ended item. The study investigated the relationship of community college students’ attitudes toward their intended academic major, ethnicity, gender and academic achievement. A 6x5x2 Factorial ANOVA revealed that no significant relationships existed between community college students’ intended major and their attitudes toward science education, F(5, 158) = 0.646, p = 0.665. The results of the 6x5x2 Factorial ANOVA revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between the community college students’ ethnicity and attitude toward science, F(4, 158) = 1.835, p = 0.125. The results of 6x5x2 Factorial ANOVA revealed that no statistically significant differences existed between the community college students’ gender and attitude toward science, F(1, 158) = 0.203, p = 0.653. The Pearson’s R Coefficient provided results that indicated that there were no statistically significant relationships between community college students’ academic achievement (GPA) and their attitudes toward science education, R = -0.065, p = 0.362.