Students' Attitudes and Perceptions about Science Affect Learning Science

Attitudes and perceptions about science are powerful motivators working for or against student achievement. According to research, students who enjoy science are more apt to do well and take advanced courses.  Similarly, students who dislike or fear science and doubt their own competencies are more likely to do poorly and boycott science altogether by late high school.           

Negative attitudes about science are learned, not inherited. Any parent can describe the delight little children take in observing the world around them and experimenting with its limits.  Yet somewhere in the elementary grades, these positive attitudes wither or find outlets apart from the subject in school called "science."  By the end of third grade, almost half the students in one survey said they would not like to take science, and by the end of eighth grade, only one-fifth had positive attitudes toward science.  Enthusiasm about science—and with it confidence—tends to dwindle as students progress through school. 

Several incorrect or damaging perceptions can fuel negative attitudes about science.  One is that success in science stems from innate ability more than from effort, and that some students are just not cut out for this "hard" subject.  This attitude is particularly pernicious for girls and minority students.  Another is that scientists—and top science students—are eccentrics or "nerds."  Some students show indifference to science to keep their status with peers who do not view science achievement as "cool."                  

How do attitudes and perceptions about science take root? Often they grow out of explicit or subliminal messages students pick up in and out of school, from teachers, peers, parents, books, the media, and authority figures.  Students can sense if teachers or parents themselves are insecure with science. Sometimes parents or teachers developed negative attitudes about science when they were young, because they were taught by traditional methods that dampened their interest.               

The methods by which science is taught in most schools continue to affect student attitudes today.  In one survey, 21 percent of students cited teachers as the reason they liked science; on the flip side, one-third cited instructional factors—such as too much lecturing—as reasons they disliked science.  When science is taught as a tedious inventory of facts and theories, it is no wonder students begin to perceive science as dull and complicated.

In addition, instruction that overemphasizes competition can produce early experiences of failure, which in turn can breed a dislike for science and a lack of confidence about future success. Similarly, teachers may subtly transmit their expectations about what students can and cannot do so that students internalize them.      Negative attitudes can have long-term consequences, such as students foreclosing their options in a subject they believe they have little hope of mastering anyway. The good news is that attitudes can be changed through teacher and parent modeling and through more engaging instruction.