| The main purposes of the present study are to investigate the differences on student's attitudes toward physics and their perceptions regarding classroom climate during physics classes based on gender and grade level. In addition, the study also explores female students' opinions about physics, and examines to what extent this factor might influence their decision to choose or not to choose physics or physics-related fields for their career choices in the future.; A group of approximately 864 male and female students, equally proportioned by gender, were assigned to take part in this study. Two standardized instruments, namely the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) and the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), have been employed to collect data. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to analyze the collected data resulting from the questionnaires as well as from the interviews.; The study found, first, regardless of their gender and grade level differences, students expected a more positive classroom climate during learning physics. Also, it has been found that male students experience a more positive classroom environment than female students. Second, the study found that male students do show more positive attitudes toward physics than their female counterparts. Meanwhile, twelfth-grade students show a more positive attitude toward physics than eleventh-graders. Third, the study found that most female students do not like physics based on several reasons such as physics is a hard, monotonous and boring subject. Although eleventh-grade female students do not like physics, most of them intended to choose science as their major in the next grade. Surprisingly, a majority of twelfth-grade female students who are majoring in science have no intention to choose physics or physics-related subjects either for their prospective major at the university or for their career choices in the future. |
