Mission impossible?: Can anything be done about attitudes to science?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider a number of issues relating to research in the area of high school pupils’ attitudes to science. Teachers appear to consider that pupils’ attitudes to science, and to what is being studied in science lessons, exert a profound influence on levels of engagement with the subject. Yet, perhaps because of the difficulties which appear to be associated with such work, studies of attitudes to science appear far less frequently in the literature than was the case 10 or 15 years ago. This paper attempts to map out the area of interest more clearly by considering issues to do with the meanings of key terms, methodology and the purpose of research into pupils’ attitudes to science. A number of key questions emerge from the discussion, and possible answers are used to argue a case for looking again at attitudes to science and to sketch an agenda for future work.