My Attitudes Toward Science (MATS): the development of a multidimensional instrument measuring students’ science attitudes

Abstract

The number of students in the United States choosing science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers is declining at a time when demand for these occupations is rapidly increasing. Numerous efforts have been undertaken to reverse this trend, yet results are uncertain. One’s attitude is key to many choices one makes, and this includes, for many, what career is pursued. Hence, teachers, informal science educators and researchers often wish to measure children’s attitudes towards science using a pretest and a posttest to determine the effects of a curriculum, an activity or an intervention. However, measuring children’s attitudes toward science has been problematic because of both the limited use of basic psychometrics in checking reliability and validity of instruments and the lack of a single construct of students’ attitudes towards science being surveyed. This article reports the development and testing of an instrument for measuring students’ science attitudes across several dimensions. Thirty-two scientists and teachers from the northeastern and south central United States participated in content validity trials. The instrument was field tested with 549 children (92 elementary-school students, 327 middle-school students and 130 high-school students) from 6 rural and suburban school systems located in the northeastern United States to determine inter-item reliability for each dimension. The resulting instrument, entitled My Attitudes Toward Science (MATS), has 40 items that measure four dimensions: (1) Attitude towards the subject of science; (2) Desire to become a scientist; (3) Value of science to society; and (4) Perception of scientists. The MATS, as a multidimensional instrument, can measure several facets of students’ attitude toward science and is designed to be used across grades levels and to be scored easily.

Appendices

Appendix 1: MATS

Appendix 2: MATS scoring instructions

Attitude toward the school science, 14 Items, 7 positively worded; 7 negatively worded

Item number	Item—if in bold it should be reversed scored before analysis
2	I usually understand what we are talking about in science
7	Science is easy for me
9	Studying science is something that I enjoy very much
18	Most students seem to understand science
23	Science is one of my favorite subjects
24	I have a good feeling toward science
28	I like science classes
5	No matter how I try, I cannot understand what the teacher is describing in science class
6	It makes me nervous to even think about being in a science class
10	I do not do very well in science
15	I often think, “I cannot do this,” when science is being taught
20	It scares me to have to study science
31	I feel upset when someone talks to me about being in a science class
36	Science is hard for most students to understand

1. Once all negative items are reversed score, have scores on these items added up for a total on the “Attitude toward the school science” dimension
2. The higher the score the more positive the student’s attitude toward the school science

Desire to become a scientist, 2 items, 1 positively worded; 1 negatively worded

Item number	Item—if in bold it should be reversed scored before analysis
11	I would like a job as a scientist
30	I don’t want a job as a scientist, because I have no interest in it

1. Once the one negative item is reversed score, have scores on these items added up for a total on the “Desire to become a scientist” dimension
2. The higher the score the stronger the desire to work in the area of science

Value of science to society, 12 items, 6 positively worded; 6 negatively worded

Item number	Item—if in bold it should be reversed scored before analysis
12	Our world is nicer to live in because of science
29	People should understand science since it is an important part of their lives
34	Science helps solve the problems of everyday life
38	Technology is an example of an important product of science
39	A major purpose of science is to produce new drugs and save lives
40	Science is helpful to understand the world
4	People do not need to understand science because it does not affect their lives
8	Discoveries in science do not affect how I live
19	Science is not useful to anyone but scientists
26	Science discoveries do not help people live better
27	A country could be strong even if it has no scientists
32	The things scientists discover through their work do not affect other people in my life

1. Once all negative items are reversed score, have scores on these items added up for a total on the “Value of science to society” dimension
2. The higher the score the more science is valued

Perception of scientists, 12 items, all are stereotypes

Item number	Item
1	Scientists do not criticize other scientists’ work
3	Scientists work alone
13	Scientists work in labs
14	You have to be old to be a scientist
16	You have to be at least a little bit crazy to be a scientist
17	Scientists do not try to improve upon an explanation they have discovered about the world
21	Scientists are males
22	Scientists do not have enough time to have fun
25	Only thinking is important to scientists, not how they feel about something
33	In their work, scientists report exactly what they observe
35	Scientists wear lab coats
37	If one scientist says an idea is true, all other scientists will believe it

1. Scores on these 12 items should be added together WITHOUT any reversal of scores needed since all items were written to reflect traditional stereotypical perceptions of scientists
2. The higher the score, the more stereotypical ideation a student holds