THE EFFECT OF THE CLASSROOM LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE PROGRAM ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENCE

The purpose of this study was to analyze students’ attitudes towards science as examined within the classroom learning environment in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) experimental science high level chemistry classrooms. In the interest of science education reform goals to engender more positive attitudes toward science. It has been a challenge to determine the assortment of variables existing inside and outside of classroom that effect student science attitudes. The concept of attitude is unique in that it has an evaluate property and it is divided into many different domains. The current study focused on attitudes toward the subject of science as examined within the classroom learning environment using appropriate instrumentation in the International Baccalaureate. IB has three programs for students aged 3 to 19 to develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world. There are more than 755,000 IB students at 2,741 schools in 138 countries (IB org.2009).

The sample of this study was composed of the 11th grade 15 (fifteen) IB students and 11th grade 15 (fifteen) non-Baccalaureate but enrolled to National Program students in the same school. IB students were taken as an experimental group and NP students were taken as a control group. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the classroom learning environment in the IBDP experimental science program on students’ attitude towards science. In this study semi-structured method was used. Data sources in this study included student responses on two instruments used as a pre and post test: Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) and Attitude towards Science in School Assessment (ATSSA). First of all, the classroom learning environments of the experimental and control groups were investigated quantitatively. ICEQ measures five different dimension of the learning environment involving open or inquiry based approaches (Rentoul & Fraser,1979). As a second step, ATSSA was examined. The ATSSA was designed to measures one dimension of a general science attitude which reflects how students feel about science as a subject in school (Germann, 1988). Data were analyzed by t-test and the results were reported. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) program used to evaluate the data statistically.

Under the light of the results, it was concluded that inquiry based experimental science classroom environment in the IBDP had distinctive effect on students’ attitude towards science. The results of this study indicated that IB Experimental science classes was in IBDP which is exercised in inquiry based classroom environment that aimed to develop students science process skills an compassing reaching knowledge, forming hypothesis, problem solving and transforming of those into their real life .

References:
Germann, P. (1988). Development of the Attitudes Towards Science in School Assessment and its use to investigate the relationship between science achievement and attitude towards science in school. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 25 (8), 689-703.
International Baccalaureate Organization, 2009, www.IB.org
Rentoul, A. J., & Fraser, B.J. (1979). Conceptualization of enquiry-based or open classroom learning environments. Curriculum Studies, 11 (3), 233-245.