Donald R. Leavers Pennsylvania State University Behrend College Erie. 16510
I
A Course which Changed the Attitudes of Students towards Science
Evidence for a positive attitude change has been ohtained in a class of 130 students enrolled in a chemistry course for nonscientists. A description of the philosophy and then the content of the course is followed by the results of a n opinion survey given the first and ninth weeks of a ten-week course. T h e general principles and instructional attitudes pervading the course were 1)
2) 3) 4)
5) 6) 7)
8)
A diluted version of the traditional majors course was to be avoided. Use of mathematics was keot to a minimum. The instructor's opinion was always differentiated from well established chemical facts, thus keeping the instructor-student "credibility gap" to a minimum. Preaching or moralizing on topics such as psychoactive drugs is counterproductive,in that they lead to disaffection of the students from both the course and the instructor. Chemistry, like all disciplines, presents an important but limited view of the world (many of the students were surprised that a scientist would admit this!). Many of our problems require a multifaceted approach technological, scientific, political, economic, and social. Competence is not necessarily transferable-s renowned physical scientist may not be competent to provide social or political solutions to p~oblems,and vice versa. The inductive and deductive logic of science was made explicit at every opportunity, as were the relationships between laws, observations, theories, and models.
T h e content of the course was to a large extent determined by the students. On the first day of class the students were asked to write down the topics in which they were interested. T h e beginning of the next class was devoted to the topics which would he discussed: the energy crisis (both immediate and long term), drugs, chemicals in foods, pesticides, and the basic concept of the atom. Some topics had to be excluded from the course (U.F.O.'s, black holes in space), since they were not chemically oriented. I t was emphasized that the motivation for studying the conceptual parts of the course was an understanding of the descriptive material: Atoms, molecules, and functional groups come before discussions of the chemistry of psychoactive drugs or the chemical reactions describing air pollution. T h e first day of the course a 20-item opinion survey was given to the students. This opinion survey contained four questions related to their attitude toward science, scientists, and chemistry courses. During the ninth week of the ten-week course. another ooinion survev includine these same questions was given. T h e questions and the percentaee of students resoondine are r e ~ r o d u c e dbelow. The first refers to the survey taken the column (1) of
804 / Journal of Chemical Education
first day, and the second column (2) refers to the ninth week. 1) How would you describe your attitude toward science? 2 -
1 -
A. great affection B. friendly tolerance 40 C. calm indifference 13 D. active dislike 6 E. extreme hatred T h e following key was used in the n e x t three items: A. strongly agree, B. agree, C. disagree, D. strongly disagree. The items are 5
9 49 34 8 0
35
2) Scientists are personally responsible for many of our problems. 3) Scientists are able to help in the solution of many ecological
problems. All chemistry courses are difficult. T h e percent responses were 4)
ITEM 2 1
A. 3 B. 16 C . 68
ITEM 3
-2
1 18 70 9
1 38
2 58
57 2 2
41
ITEM 4 1 18 50 31 1
1
2 5 31 61
D. 12 0 3 On a scale, assigning A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1,and E = 0, the mean scores are ITEM MEAN SCORES 2 3 4
2.08 3.29 2.85
2.07 3.57 2.38
As can be seen from an inspection of the percentages and mean scores, the students' attitude toward science improved significantly (#I),as did their opinion of the role of scientists in solving our ecological problems (#3). The students also felt that chemistry is not as mysterious and difficult as it first appears (#4). However, the students still felt that scientists are personally responsible for many of our problems (#2). The students could have interpreted this question in several ways: They may feel that scientists have abrogated some of their moral responsibility by the creation of devices of destruction (hydrogen bomb, nerve gases) or t h a t scientists do not thoroughly investigate the impact of their discoveries on society and the environment. In any event, improvement was noted in three out of four attitudes: It seems that negative attitudes toward science and scientists are somewhat reversible.
