Students’ Perceptions of High School Science: What has Changed Over the Last Decade?

This paper presents comparative questionnaire data from three different samples of Australian high school students in an attempt to see if anything has changed in relation to how they perceive the science they experience in the compulsory years of secondary school (grades 7–10). Questionnaire data were obtained from 1,585 high school students in 2011 and 2,016 students in 2005 and findings are compared with those reported in a national report (Goodrum et al. 2001). Results show significant increases in the frequency with which students report that their science teacher takes notice of their ideas and in the use of computers and the Internet. There have also been changes regarding the rapid provision of feedback, the use of understandable language by teachers and the contextualisation of the new work in terms of work already covered. Little appears to have changed, however, in relation to the teacher-directed pedagogies employed to teach science where there appears to be a higher incidence of copying notes and fewer opportunities for students to investigate topics in which they are interested. The findings suggest that while there have been some positive changes, there are still many students who indicate that the science they experience in secondary school is irrelevant to their everyday life and to their future. It seems that the curiosity and wonder one would hope is associated with studying science is missing for a large proportion of students. It is clear that further actions need to be undertaken to transform this continuing situation.     

A cross-national survey of cultural expectations and sex-role standards in reading

Cultural expectations and sex-role standards about reading in Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Israel, Japan, and U.S.A. were investigated. A picture test showing various activities and objects including reading and books was administered in each country to six sub-samples that approximated to the levels: students in grades I, IV, VIII, and XII, college students, and adults. Subjects had to ascribe the activity or object as being appropriate for either a boy or a girl. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that cultural expectations and sex-role standards about reading are congruent within one country but that they differ between countries. In particular, boys in Canada and the U.S.A. rapidly learn to perceive reading as a feminine activity, whereas Danish and Japanese males at all ages consistently view reading as acceptable masculine behaviour.     

Attachment behavior: a validation study in two age groups.

To assess the validity of attachment scores derived from the Ainsworth "strange situation," 56 1-year-olds and 79 2-year-olds accompanied by either the mother, the father, or a brief acquaintance were studied. Proximity to the adult, duration of play, crying, activity, and the incidence of looks and distance bids were measured. 1-year-olds were more secure with their parents: they were more active, played more, cried less, and stood closer to their parents than to an acquaintance. 2-year-olds accompanied by their parents were less settled in the presence of a stranger than children accompanied by the acquaintance. The adequacy of current conceptions and measures of attachment was discussed in light of these results.     

Dimensional salience and judgments of bigness by three-year-old children.

3-year-olds were shown triads of rectangles and asked to select the "big" one, where the biggest rectangle in each triad was neither the tallest nor the widest. Dimensional salience and response choice were highly related. In addition, as saliency of a particular dimension increased relative to the other dimension, significantly more responses were based on that dimension. The results support the notion that the young child does not rely on 1 specific dimension to make judgments of bigness but, rather, attends to the most salient differences among stimuli.