The Asia-Pasific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, vol.17, no.1, pp.1-22, 2016 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
It is indispensable fact that having positive attitude towards science is one of the
important factors that promotes students for studying in science. The study is a kind
of national study that aims to investigate middle school students’, from different
regions of Turkey, attitudes toward science, scientists and science classes. The study
was done with 2063 students from fourth grade to eighth grade from all regions of
Turkey. The Assessing Attitudes and Preferences in Science (AAPS) instrument was
used in the current study. The findings showed that students from western regions of Turkey have more positive attitudes toward science and the other related concepts.
Furthermore it was reached that girls have more positive attitudes toward these
concepts than boys. It was also found students’ attitudes toward science decreases
with respect to grade level (or age). Lastly, possible reasons of such results were
discussed.