Attitude Towards Learning Chemistry Among Secondary School Students in Malaysia
Attitude Towards Learning Chemistry Among Secondary School Students in Malaysia
Attitude Towards Learning Chemistry Among Secondary School Students in Malaysia
ABSTRACT
In this current era, the world is facing environmental challenges where the
future communities are losing interest in science subjects such as chemistry.
There are many factors that contributed to students success. One of the
factors is the students attitude in learning. The result of this study revealed
that a majority of the students has a positive attitude towards learning
chemistry when they conduct chemistry experiments in the laboratory.
Students also show positive attitude towards teachers teaching style. Result
also revealed that most students have a negative attitude towards chemistry
because they lack interest in the subject and the syllabus itself.
INTRODUCTION
LITERATURE REVIEW
Koch (2005) said that teachers feelings and attitudes about science can
affect their students feelings and attitudes. Students who reported having
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their teachers positive attitudes toward science. This is proven by a research
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by the teachers enthusiasm, effectiveness in teaching and presentation
on experiments. In accordance to Ward et al. (2005), attitudes of students
towards science are formed at an early age. At an early age, parents and
teachers can observe the students attitude towards science. When the
students show negative attitude in learning science, parents and teachers
can take necessary actions to make the students have a positive attitude
towards science. The chemistry syllabus and content are other factors that
contributed towards students negative attitude to chemistry. The students
dislike science because of the amount of information they have to learn
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as well as the amount of time spent for writing in science classes (Pollard
and Triggs (2000); Ward et al., 2005). According to Jegede (2007) and
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in learning chemistry. Other students opinions on chemistry can affect
students attitude in learning chemistry (Berg et al., 2003). If a majority
of the students in a school have a poor attitude and opinions in chemistry,
other students are likely to have the same reaction towards the subject. Most
of the times, students complain about the course content. They complain
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the weight of information the subject has (Pollard and Triggs, 2000; Ward
et al., 2005). Knowing the basic and schemata of the subject is crucial to
succeed. The use of a variety of teaching styles and methods can raise the
students attention and interest in chemistry. Teachers who failed to use
an engaging teaching style during chemistry class will lose the students
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teachers put more effort in their teaching styles as well as put into concern
the students needs, it can boost the students attitude towards chemistry.
METHODOLOGY
Bachelor
of Science 85 0 80 35
(Applied
Chemistry)
Bachelor of
Education 0 12 26 0
(Chemistry)
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number of chemistry students in one local university in Malaysia. It is a
current environmental challenge to get many students to be interested in
chemistry courses in universities. As said by Ward et al. (2005), interest
in chemistry must be instilled from young in the students life so that they
will continue the interest to a higher level, namely the university level and
their future career.
show positive attitude when conducting experiments while only 15% (12.5%
disagree and 2.5% strongly disagree) of the students have a negative attitude
towards conducting chemistry experiments.
Majority of the students said that at times, the chemistry subject can
be too dry and uninteresting. Conducting experiments in the laboratory can
enhance students understanding because they can apply the theory that
they have learnt in the classroom into the experiments. The result of this
study shows that students love hands-on learning rather than chalk and talk
learning. The students are most happy when they get to conduct experiments
in the lab. The result of this study is in line with other researches where
chemistry experiments are enjoyed by the students (Jegede, 2007; Blosser,
1990). Experiments can give more detailed information about chemistry
and can enhance the students interest in learning chemistry (Blosser, 1990;
Yahaya and Ling, 2010).
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positive attitude towards learning chemistry is when the teachers are an
expert in the subject. It has been observed that students like it when teachers
share their knowledge and expertise about the lesson being taught. It is
easier for students to ask for ideas, opinions and questions on the subject
because they can get the answer back immediately. This can enhance the
students understanding in chemistry.
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students negatives attitude towards chemistry. Only 28.8% (5% strongly
agree and 23.8% agree) of the students claimed that the chemistry syllabus
is not too wide for them. Most of the students, which is 71.2% (50%
disagree and 21.2% strongly disagree) of the whole student sample, said 7
that chemistry syllabus is too wide.
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CONCLUSION
Hence, the result of the present study showed that most of the students have
a positive attitude towards learning chemistry when their teachers allow them
to conduct chemistry experiments in the laboratory. Conversely, students
do not show a positive attitude when they are asked to listen to what the
teacher is teaching in front. This shows that students in this present study
prefer to do hands-on activities or student centered learning rather than
teacher centered learning. (YHQWKRXJKWKHVWXGHQWVVDLGWKH\ORYHGRLQJ
FKHPLVWU\H[SHULPHQWVLQWKHODERUDWRU\WKHVWXGHQWVZLOOQRWHQMR\GRLQJ
LWLIWKHWHDFKHUVDUHQRWNQRZOHGJHDEOHTeachers who are well experienced
and an expert in the area can answer the students questions remarkably well
as oppose to teachers who are inexperience. In addition to that, teachers
who are enthusiastic and motivated in their teaching can raise the students
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students are more cooperative in class when teachers are enthusiastic in
teaching them (Urban, 2008; Koch, 2005; Bauer, 2002). Majority of the
students claimed that chemistry is not their favourite subject in school. The
8 factor that contributed to this negative attitude is the fact that the chemistry
subject is too wide for students to learn before their exam. Both teachers
and students are complaining that there are too much to learn, but time is
limited. Teachers have to work overtime while the students have to remain
in school after school hours for extra chemistry classes so that the teacher
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REFERENCES
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Jurnal Penyelidikan MPSAH, 7, 19-27.
Koch, J. (2005). Science stories: science methods for elementary and middle
school teachers.
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Ward, H., Roden, J., Hewlett, C. & Foreman, J. (2005). Teaching science
in the primary classroom: A practical guide. London: Paul Chapman
Publishing.
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