Investigating pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards science in Bahrain: Positive or negative?

On each question, participants indicated their level of agreement with statements on seven subscales related to science attitudes. Both each scale score mean and total score mean were calculated and shown in the following tables.

In Table 3, the TOSRA Total Score Means is tabled.

Table 3. Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) Total Score Means

Test Score

Participants

All participants (N=75)

Mean

186.45

11.39

According to results in Table 3, Participants had total mean score 186.45 which is below the midpoint of 210 so they had overall negative attitudes towards science.

Table 4. Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) Score Means for All Participants by Scale

Test Score

Scale

Social Implications nce of Scie

Normality of Scientists

Attitude to Inquiry

Adoption of Scientific Attitudes

Enjoyment of Science Lessons

Leisure Interest in Science

Career Interest in Science

Mean of seven scales

Mean

27.5

24.7

24.9

26.9

24.5

24.9

24. 7

25.44

8.6

8.3

8.0

8.4

8.2

8.0

8.3

Note. N=75

Figure 1. Profile of mean scores obtained on each TOSRA subscale

According to Table 4 and Figure 1, the participants gave overall negative responses toward the social value of science (mean scale score of 27.5, which is below the midpoint of 30), normality of scientists (M=24.7, which is below the midpoint of 30), attitudes toward inquiry (M=24.9, which is below the midpoint of 30), adoption of scientific attitudes (M=26.9, which is below the midpoint of 30), attitudes toward science classes (M=24.5, which is below the midpoint of 30), leisure interest in science (M=24.9, which is below the midpoint of 30), and attitudes toward careers in science (M=24.7, which is below the midpoint of 30).

Based on the results of total mean scores and each scale score, the participants had overall negative attitudes towards science.