Vilia Paulo N, Candeias Adelinda A, Neto António S, Franco Maria Da Glória S, Melo Madalena
School of Social Sciences and Centre for Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, University of ÉvoraÉvora, Portugal.
School of Social Sciences and Centre for Educational Research and Psychology, University of ÉvoraÉvora, Portugal.
Front Psychol. 2017 Jun 28;8:1064. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01064. eCollection 2017.
Science education plays a critical role as political priority due to its fundamental importance in engaging students to pursue technological careers considered essential in modern societies, in order to face scientific development challenges. High-level achievement on science education and positive attitudes toward science constitutes a crucial challenge for formal education. Several studies indicate close relationships between students' attitudes, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of student's attitudes toward the school discipline of Physics and Chemistry and their reasoning abilities on academic achievement on that school subject, among Portuguese 9th grade students using the data collected during the Project (PTDC/CPE-CED/104884/2008). The participants were 470 students (267 girls - 56.8% and 203 boys - 43.2%), aged 14-16 years old (μ = 14.3 ± 0.58). The attitude data were collected using the Attitude toward Physics-Chemistry Questionnaire (ATPCQ) and, the Reasoning Test Battery (RTB) was used to assess the students reasoning abilities. Achievement was measured using the students' quarterly (9-week) grades in the physics and chemistry subject. The relationships between the attitude dimensions toward Physics-chemistry and the reasoning dimensions and achievement in each of the three school terms were assessed by multiple regression stepwise analyses and standardized regression coefficients (β), calculated with IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software. Both variables studied proved to be significant predictor variables of school achievement. The models obtained from the use of both variables were always stronger accounting for higher proportions of student's grade variations. The results show that ATPCQ and RTB had a significantly positive relationship with student's achievement in Physics-chemistry, indicating that both attitudinal and cognitive variables should be taken into account on science education as well as in educative intervention.
科学教育作为一项政治优先事项发挥着关键作用，因为它对于促使学生投身现代社会视为必不可少的技术职业以应对科学发展挑战至关重要。科学教育的高水平成就以及对科学的积极态度是正规教育面临的一项关键挑战。多项研究表明学生的态度、认知能力与学业成绩之间存在密切关系。本研究的主要目的是利用在项目（PTDC/CPE-CED/104884/2008）期间收集的数据，分析葡萄牙九年级学生对物理和化学学科的态度及其推理能力对该学科学习成绩的影响。参与者为470名学生（267名女生 - 占56.8%，203名男生 - 占43.2%），年龄在14至16岁之间（μ = 14.3 ± 0.58）。态度数据通过物理 - 化学态度问卷（ATPCQ）收集，推理测试组（RTB）用于评估学生的推理能力。成绩通过学生在物理和化学学科的季度（9周）成绩来衡量。通过逐步多元回归分析以及使用IBM SPSS Statistics 21软件计算的标准化回归系数（β），评估了三个学期中每个学期对物理 - 化学的态度维度、推理维度与成绩之间的关系。研究的两个变量均被证明是学业成绩的重要预测变量。使用这两个变量得到的模型总是更强，能够解释更高比例的学生成绩差异。结果表明，ATPCQ和RTB与学生的物理 - 化学成绩呈显著正相关，这表明在科学教育以及教育干预中都应考虑态度和认知变量。
