THE EFFECT OF GENDER AND GDARE LEVEL ON RURAL SARAWAK INDIGENOUS SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS CHEMISTRY LESSON TO ENHANCE LEARNING

Year 2017, Volume: 6 , 87 - 98, 01.09.2017

Murugan Mini Ratamun Kamisah Osman

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the
interaction effects between gender and grade level among rural indigenous
secondary school students’ attitude towards chemistry of Sarawak, Malaysia. The
students’ attitudes were measured using Attitude towards Chemistry Lesson scale
(ATCLS) form of a multidimensional questionnaire to provide the interaction
effects between gender and grade levels. The subscales which are involved in
ATCLS are liking for chemistry theory lessons, liking for chemistry laboratory
work, evaluative beliefs about school chemistry and behavioural tendencies to
learn chemistry. ATCLS was administered to 470 rural indigenous secondary
school students between age 16-18 years old which involve 177 males and 293
female students. Only two grade levels were chosen in this study that is form
4(245) students and form 5 (225), students. The two-way MANOVA statistical
analysis was used to identify the effects of gender and grade level on rural
indigenous secondary school students’ attitude towards chemistry. The finding
show that gender  (Wilks’ lambda = 0.955,
F (4, 463) = 5.47, p < 0.001) and grade level (Wilks’ lambda = 0.969, F (4,
463) = 3.68, p < 0.05) have a significant effect on attitude towards
chemistry. The finding also shows that no significant interaction effect on
gender and grade level (Wilks’ lambda = 0.983, F (4, 463) = 2.03, p >
0.05)  on rural indigenous secondary
school students’ attitude towards chemistry.

Keywords

Attitude, gender, grade level, indigenous students, learning chemistry

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