Student attitudes towards biology and knowledge acquisition in biology: A study of transfer versus non-transfer students at California State University, Fullerton

Students enter a biology class with certain expectations based on prior academic experience. They may also have attitudes about biology that could affect their knowledge acquisition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes and expectations of students in the biology major. Specifically, the attitudes and expectations of community college transfer students were compared to those of students who had begun their college education at a 4-year state university. Student attitudes and expectations were assessed using the Student Attitudes Towards Biology (SATB) survey instrument. Students in the final course of the lower division biology core were surveyed. It was hypothesized that the attitudes of the two populations would differ. Analysis of the survey revealed no significant differences, implying that the demographic variables examined had no impact on student attitude. It was found that students at this level are failing to see the connection of biology concepts to reality.