The effects of gender affirmative supplemental science material on sixth-grade students' attitudes toward science and science careers.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of gender affirmative supplemental science material, in the form of a weekly science newspaper, on sixth grade students' attitudes toward science and science careers. Three separate instruments--Career Interest Survey, Science Attitude Survey, and the Image of Science and Scientists survey--were used to measure students' attitudes. The study explored the possibility of using supplemental material to encourage female students in science. The study also examined the effects of the material on male students' attitudes toward science.;During the Spring of the 1995 academic year, two elementary schools in Palm Bay, Florida were selected to participate in this study. The schools were selected by matching them in terms of the number and gender of sixth grade students. One teacher at each school taught all students participating in this study. One male and one female teacher participated in the study. Each teacher attended a one hour training session. Students were divided by classrooms into one of three groups: Treatment I (female gender affirmative), Treatment II (male gender affirmative), and Treatment III (gender blended), which served as the control group in this study.;Subsequent to the training session, each teacher administered the three surveys to measure their students' attitudes toward science and science careers. After pretesting, students received a gender affirmative science newspaper weekly for a period of six weeks. Students in Treatment I received female gender affirmative material, students in Treatment II received male gender affirmative material, and students in Treatment III (control) received gender blended material. Additional material in the form of videos and posters was also provided for the teachers.;After the treatment period, students' were posttested using the same three instruments that were used in pretesting. Results were analyzed using MANCOVA. While a trend for female students to have improved scores on the posttests was observed, no significant differences between treatment groups was found on any of the three instruments.;Data analysis also indicated no significant differences between male and female students in their attitudes toward science. This differs from findings of previous studies in which male students had significantly more positive attitudes toward science and science careers (Simpson & Oliver, 1990; Erickson & Erickson, 1984; Peltz, 1990).