The Frequency of Hands-On Experimentation and Student Attitudes Toward Science: A Statistically Significant Relation (2005-51-Ornstein)

Attitudinal data tested hypotheses that students have more positive attitudes toward science when teachers regularly emphasize hands-on laboratory activities and when students more frequently experience higher levels of experimentation or inquiry. The first predicted that students would have more positive attitudes toward science in classrooms where teachers regularly emphasized hands-on laboratory activities. The second predicted that students more frequently experiencing a higher level of experimentation or inquiry would have more positive attitudes. Data from a student attitude questionnaire measuring three attitudinal factors were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Both hypotheses were partially supported. Analysis of individual student data showed more positive attitudes in hands-on classrooms on all three factors at the .01 level of confidence while data based on class averages offered opposing differences. More challenging, open-ended experimentation and inquiry experiences produced more positive student attitudes. This was especially true when students were provided frequent opportunities to generate independent hypotheses and draw their own conclusions. Many variables influence an educational environment, so discussion is therefore provided on how future studies might be conducted to achieve more meaningful results.