BELIEFS AND ATIITUDES OF URBANPRIMARY TEACHERS TOWARD

PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND TEACHINGPHYSICAL SCIENCE

Mary M. Atwater, Catherine Gardner, andCarol R. Kight

AbstractEighteen primary teachers (K-3) from five urban schools in

the southeastern part of the United States participated in thisstudy. The purposes of this study were to provide insight intooptions for inservice education programs dealing with urbanteachers and their unique needs and to determine some of theattitudes and beliefs of urban primary school teachers towardphysical science and physical science teaching. The results ofthis study indicated that these elementary teachers realized theimportance of hands-on activities. However, they felt a need fora stronger knowledge of chemistry and physics to competentlyteach elementary physical science using that instructionalstrategy. There were significantly positive relationships betweentheir attitudes and beliefs about physical science.

INTRODUCTIONThe attitudes of teachers toward science and science teaching are

certainly of value as they relate to science instruction. Druva andAnderson (1983) pointed out that teacher attitudes and beliefs have beenrepeatedly used in science teaching studies to indicate successfulteaching. Thompson and Shrigley (1986) also stressed the value ofdetermining science teacher attitudes.

Many studies involving attitudes and their relationship to scienceinstruction have been conducted. Some of these studies found thatelementary school teachers have negative attitudes toward science(Appleton, 1977; Prestt, 1978; and Riley, 1979). These studies alsoindicated that, because of their negative attitudes, elementary teachers donot teach science enthusiastically.

Negative attitudes toward science have been detected early inteacher education programs. Some elementary education majors heldstrong negative attitudes toward science when they entered universities.Their college level science courses reinforced their negative attitudes asfound by Norland and DeVito (1974).

In a study of the relationships between teacher background andcommitment and confidence to teach science, Perkes (1975) discoveredthat prospective teachers felt more adequate to teach science if they hadbeen successful in their academic science studies. Perkes suggested that

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Beliefs and Attitudes

teacher training programs should provide science courses in whichelementary preservice teachers could experience success.

Kennedy (1973) reported that preservice elementary teachers didnot exhibit a strong positive attitude toward teaching science. In hisresearch, he found that a process approach applied to a science methodscourse for elementary teachers changed attitudes in a more positivedirection.

Strawitz (1976) conducted research to examine the effects of anactivity-centered elementary education science methods course onstudent attitudes related to teaching science. It was suggested that if theelementary preservice teachers saw science more in terms of activitiesthan knowledge, they would be less anxious about teaching it. Strawitz'sresearch confirmed that the course did help some preservice teachers toview science more in terms of activities than knowledge. Other specialmethods courses have resulted in changes in attitudes of preserviceelementary teachers as found by Piper (1977), Piper and Moore (1977),DeBruin (1977), and Cook (1971).

Preservice teachers are a captive audience; they must completethese programs to the professors' satisfaction to progress to theclassroom. Once teachers are in the classroom, it is more difficult to workwith them to achieve the goal of changing their attitudes, thereby changingtheir teaching behaviors. Staff development programs and inserviceteacher education courses have been developed to attempt to solve thisproblem (Finson, 1989; Joyce, Howey, and Yarger, 1976). Some inserviceteacher education courses and staff development programs have beendismal failures. Teachers' perception of these courses are: 1.) somethingthey have to do to retain their teacher certificate; or 2.) something theyhave to do to get extra money during the summer (Gall, Haistey, Baker,and Perez 1982). There are many that are successful. Sponner andSimpson (1979) demonstrated that attitudes toward science of inserviceteachers could be changed during a summer inservice course. Spooner,Szabo, and Simpson (1982) found that these attitudes could be changedover short periods of time. Cox and Carpenter (1989) conducted aninservice elementary school teacher course that successfully reducedscience anxiety and improved attitudes toward teaching science.

Other studies have indicated that attitudes toward science andteaching science can be changed (Dooley, 1977; Koballa and Coble, 1979;Gabel and Rubba, 1979; Moore, 1975; and Piper, 1977). Currentresearch indicates that other factors need to be considered in attitudestudy. According to the Theory of Reasoned Behavior (Azjen andFishbein, 1980), teachers' beliefs greatly influence their attitudes. Bothbeliefs and attitudes will determine teacher behavior.

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Beliefs and Attitudes

PURPOSE OF THE STUDYResearch has been done to examine the effectiveness of inservice

teacher workshops (Crow and Barufaldi, 1985; Finson, 1989; Riley, 1980;Yeanyand Padilla, 1986). This research has been done in predominantlyWhite institutions in school districts with little ethnic diversity. Since 1985,elementary schools in this country have experienced an increase in theirethnic minority populations (Baker and Ogle, 1989). Presently, 23 of thenations' 25 largest school districts have a preponderance of AfricanAmerican students, 75% of the student population being AfricanAmericans (Matcznski and Joseph, 1989). These numbers present astrong indication of the need for research in the area. Little research hasbeen published to help in the inservice education programs dealing withurban teachers and their unique needs. This paper helps to fill the void bydetermining some of the attitudes and beliefs of urban primary schoolteachers (K-3) toward physical science and physical science teaching.

RESEARCH DESIGNThis study is a product of the Improving Secondary Mathematics and

Science Instruction in Georgia Program, which was funded under theDwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Act grantprogram of the U.S. Department of Education. The major purpose of theproject, entitled The Primary Science Teachers Project, was to aid primaryelementary teachers in teaching physical science concepts to their K-3students. The project was composed of two phases, a two-week summerinstitute and a school year enrichment series.

The participants selected the physical science topics which wereincluded in the workshops. The topics selected were international systemof units, safety in the science classroom, process skills (observation,classification, drawing conclusions, and making inferences), physical andchemical properties of matter, magnetism, electricity, Newton's first law,Newton's third law, impact of moving objects, light, color, and thegreenhouse effect. It was important to know the teachers' beliefs towardteaching physical science concepts and the attitudes toward physicalscience.

SAMPLEEighteen elementary science teachers from five urban elementary

schools in the southeastern part of the United States participated in thestudy. However, complete data were available for only sixteen of theeighteen participants. Fifteen of the sixteen participants were AfricanAmericans, one was White. All of the participants were females. The

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Beliefs and Attitudes

teachers varied in their teaching experience and professional credentials.Fifty-six percent of the teachers held bachelor degrees; forty-four percentheld master's degrees. The fifty-six percent of the participants receivedtheir highest degrees in the southeastern part of the United States;approximately nineteen percent of the participants were awarded theirhighest degree from midwestern colleges or universities. Anothernineteen percent of the participants were educated in the southwesternpart of this country, and six percent of the participants received theirhighest degrees from northeastern colleges and universities.

It is interesting to note that approximately 44% of the participantsheld lifetime certificates, while 38% held professional certificates at thebachelor level. Only one participant, or approximately 6% of theelementary teachers, held a professional certificate at the specialist level,and two (12%) held professional certificates at the master's level. Fortypercent of the teachers had over twenty years of teaching experience;20% had 15 to 20 years of teaching experience. Only 6% of theparticipants had 10 to 14 years of experience, while approximately 34%had six to nine years of teaching experience. There were missing data onthe teaching experience for one of the teachers in this study. Therefore,the teachers involved in this workshop were experienced and matureprofessionals working in urban elementary schools.

INSTRUMENTSTwo instruments, both using a Likert scale, were modified for use in

this study to measure attitudes and beliefs. These instruments, used withthe permission of the authors, were the Physical Science Attitude Scale(PSAS) and Survey of Opinions Toward Elementary School PhysicalScience (SOTESPS). The modification included changing the word"science" to the term "physical science" where appropriate to reflect thecontext of this study.

The PSAS, a modified version of the Revised Math Attitude(Spooner, Szabo, & Simpson, 1982), was designed to measure teachers'attitudes toward physical science. It contains 20 items with the followingpossible responses: "strongly agree", "agree", "undecided", "disagree",and "strongly disagree". A Cronbach's Alpha of 0.95 was obtained from theprevious study using the Revised Math Attitude as compared to 0.91 fromthis study.

The SOTESPS (Spooner & Simpson, 1979) was designed tomeasure the beliefs of teachers toward teaching physical science in theirelementary classes. This instrument is composed of 20 items with amaximum score of 100, similar to the scoring on the PSAS. A positiveattitude would be denoted by a score of 80 or above, a neutral attitude by a

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Beliefs and Attitudes

score of 60, and a score of 40 or below would indicate a negative attitude.The Cronbach's Alpha of the original instrument yielded a coefficient of0.75 as compared with the Cronbach's Alpha of 0.72 for the SOTESPS.

In addition, the Physical Science Teaching Questionnaire adaptedfrom the Science Teaching Questionnaire by Atwater, Espinet, Larussa:and Simmons (1988) was used to collect demographic information. Thedemographic information included such information as gender, years ofteaching experience, highest degree earned, and types of professionalcertificates held.

PROCEDUREThe PSAS and the SOTESPS were administered to the eighteen K-3

teachers during the second day of the workshop. Therefore, the teachers'attitudes toward physical science and their beliefs toward teachingphysical science were determined at the beginning of the project.Demographic data were collected during the first week of the project.

RESULTSThese urban teachers entered this workshop with mean scores on

the SOTESPS of 55.19 (SD ± 4.75) out of a possible score of 100. Fromprevious usage of this test, it was decided that scores of 40 - 60 wouldindicate a neutral opinion toward the teaching of elementary schoolphysical science. The mean scores of these teachers on the PSASindicated a neutral attitude toward physical science.

In response to the SOTESPS, 100% of the urban teachers stronglyagreed that students learn better using a "hands-on-science" approach toteaching (Table 1, question 1). The majority (87%) of the teachersdisagreed that students should be told about science (Table 1, question2). Even though the majority of the teachers believed students learn betterby using hands-on activities, their scores on the PSAS indicated that theyfelt nervous when attempting to do physical science experimentsthemselves. Sixty percent of the teachers felt insecure when doingscience experiments, while 84% were nervous when doing physicalscience experiments (Table 2). When teaching elementary schoolphysical science, 60% of the teachers felt they must have a strongknowledge base of physical science facts to be competent teachers.(Table 1, question 3).

Spearman's correlation coefficients were calculated using thecumulative scores of the participants on the SOTESPS and the PSAS. TheStatistical Analysis System was used to analyze the data. A correlationcoefficient (r) of 0.55 (p. < .03) was obtained. A significant correlation of

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Beli efs and Attitudes

Table 1Survey of Opinions Toward Elementary School Physical Science

Questions Responses·

Question 1: Exposing students to "hands-on"activities is the best way to teachphysical science in elementary school

Question 2: It is better to tell students aboutphysical science than to let themdiscover it on their own.

Question 3: Elementary teachers must knowphysical science content well beforeattempting to teach physical science.

Agree

100%

Disagree

87%

Agree

60%

• The category agree includes responses of strongly agree and agree. The category

disagree includes responses of strongly disagree and disagree.

Table 2Physical Science Attitudes Scales

Questions

Question 7: I feel a sense of insecurity whenattempting physical science!

Question 16: It makes me nervous to even thinkabout having to do a physical scienceexperiment.

Response·

Agree60%

Agree84%

·The category agree includes responses of strongly agree and agree. The category

disagree includes responses of strongly disagree and disagree.

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Beliefs and Attitudes

0.55 indicated that teachers' attitudes toward physical science are relatedto their opinions and beliefs toward teaching physical science. Otherresearchers have found this relationship (Shrigley & Johnson, 1974:Spooner, Szabo & Simpson, 1982).

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONThis study gave a clear image of this sample of urban minority

elementary school teachers. These teachers realized the importance ofhands-on activities but were fearful of implementing such activities. Theyfelt a need for a strong knowledge of chemistry and physics to competentlyteach elementary physical science. There was a strong correlationbetween their beliefs and attitudes.

The data gathered in this study should be used in designinginservice teacher education programs for urban teachers. Urban teachersneed courses that will help them overcome perceived inadequaciesrelative to knowledge of physical science. It is also important to developmethods to help these teachers gain confidence in their abilities to dohands-on activities.

The strong correlation between beliefs and attitudes of these urbanteachers provides direction for professional science educators designinginservice education courses. Attitudes can be changed by inservicecourses. Since attitudes and beliefs are strongly correlated, beliefs maybe changed by inservice programs also. According to Fishbein's Theory ofReasoned Behavior, there is a relationship between belief, attitude, andbehavior. Changes in beliefs and attitudes should result in changes inteaching behaviors of urban elementary school teachers.

A major goal of science education is to improve science instruction.Most of the time, the only access professional science educators have toclassroom teachers is through inservice education courses. It is importantto know characteristics of the population when designing these courses inorder to achieve our goals.

Further study is needed to examine options for helping urbanteachers develop a better content base of factual knowledge andconfidence in doing "hands-on-science" activities. When workable andeffective options are identified, still further research is needed toinvestigate if increased knowledge and self-assurance result insignificantly improved student performance as well as more positiveattitudes toward teaching physical science among teachers in urbanelementary schools.

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Dr. Mary M. Atwater is an Assistant Professor in the Department of

Science Education at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.Ms. Catherine Gardner is an Assistant Professor at Mercer

University and a doctoral student in the Department of Science Education

at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

Ms. Carol R. Kight is the Science Department Chair and a teacher atWinder-Barrow High School, Winder, Georgia and a doctoral student in the

Department of Science Education at the University of Georgia, Athens,

GA.Acknowledgements

This research was partially funded by Education for Economics

Security Act (ESSA) under Title II and conducted at the University of

Georgia. The views here expressed do not necessarily represent the

views of the U.S. Office of Education.

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