The attitudes of female Pre-Service Elementary Teachers at Princess Noura University towards teaching sciences and its correlation with some academic variables

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the attitudes of students who study for Pre-service Elementary School Teachers about the teaching of sciences and its correlation with some academic variables. The population of the study consists of 71 female students from the bachelor degree in the final year (level seven and eight), Faculty of Education, University of Princess Norah Bent Abdurrahman in Saudi Arabia, in the second semester of the academic year 1436 AH-2015AD. The descriptive Method (Survey) was used through implementing the scale of attitudes towards sciences teaching and a test on scientific concepts, designed by the author of the study.

The study revealed that the students have negative attitudes towards science teaching. The arithmetic mean of the scale of attitudes towards the teaching of sciences reached (3.23). In addition, there was no statistically significant differences in the attitudes of students due to their pre-university domain or academic achievement. The study also revealed a low level of understanding of scientific concepts among students. The percentage of test scores as a whole was (45.5%) with an arithmetic mean of (0.45).

The study proposed several recommendations that would raise the level of students’ attitudes towards sciences teaching and improve the level of their understanding of scientific concepts .