| Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to examine the relationship between teachers' attitudes, beliefs, and their perceptions of students' attitudes about Science and Technology (S&T), gender differences in students' patterns of S&T learning, and teachers' perceptions of scientists and S&T A sample of 50 grade 4 to 8 teachers completed an original questionnaire and 10 of those participants were subsequently interviewed. The quantitative results suggested that teachers that perceive their students' attitudes as positive and hold no prejudices about scientists or negative opinions about S&T tend to perceive no gender differences in students' attitudes. The qualitative analyses concerning teachers' beliefs about scientists/S&T principally confirmed all quantitative findings. The further exploration of the relationships between teachers' attitudes and their beliefs concerning scientists/S&T, however, indicated that the results are two-edged. |
