Primary- and high school students’ attitude, learning motivation and opinion regarding chemistry subject

Abstract

It is well-known that interest in learning science declines during the school years, and very few students choose science careers. Among science subjects, chemistry is in a particularly difficult situation. The identification and assessment of the affective factors influencing learning supports the understanding of the learning problems of the subject and the improvement of teaching. The study explored attitudes towards chemistry, motivation to learn chemistry, and opinions about the chemistry subject and career choice among primary school students (n = 265) in grades 7–8 and secondary school students (n = 300) in grades 9–10. The online survey measured motivation to learn chemistry using the Chemistry Motivation Questionnaire II (CMQ II), adapted from the Science Motivation Questionnaire II (Glynn et al., 2011), and plans for further study in chemistry based on the Mujtaba et al. (2018) questionnaire. The results show that attitudes towards chemistry and motivation to learn chemistry decline significantly between grades 7 and 8, and the decrease continues in secondary school. Attitudes towards chemistry are most strongly related to intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, while they are poorly related to subject grades and parental education. Although students find many jobs related to chemistry interesting, few of them are planning a career connected to chemistry. The present research highlights the importance of a better understanding of the affective factors that influence learning, especially in the early stages of chemistry learning.