Attitude Research in Science Education

The research into how students' attitudes affect their learning of science relatedsubjects has been one of the core areas of interest by science educators. The developmentin science education records various attempts in measuring attitudes and determining thecorrelations between behavior achievements career aspirations gender identity andcultural inclination. Some researchers noted that attitudes can be learned and teacherscan encourage students to like science subjects through persuasion. But some view thatattitude is situated in context and has much to do with upbringing and environment. Thecritical role of attitude is well recognized in advancing science education in particulardesigning curriculum and choosing powerful pedagogies and nurturing students.Since Noll's (1935) seminal work on measuring the scientific attitudes a steady stream of research papersdescribing the development and validation of scales have appeared in scholarly publications. Despite these efforts theprogress in this area has been stagnated by limited understanding of the conception of attitude dimensionality and inabilityto determine the multitude of variables that made up such concept. This book makes an attempt to take stock and criticallyexamine classical views on science attitudes and explore contemporary attempts in measuring science-related attitudes. Thechapters in this book are a reflection of researchers who work tirelessly in promoting science education and highlight thecurrent trends and future scenarios in attitude measurement.