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This research aims to investigate the attitudes of young children toward learning science in the early educational grades.

The study involved conducting interviews with seventy-three children attending institutions in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The structured interview method was employed to collect valuable data.

The findings of the interviews shed light on the inclination of young children to foster positive attitudes toward science education. These inclinations include the facilitation of knowledge acquisition that enables children to develop skills for applying scientific concepts in real-life contexts, the incorporation of hands-on activities both inside and outside the classroom, and the prioritization of child-centered approaches to learning.

This research aims to explore the attitudes of young children in early educational grades toward learning science. Interviews were conducted with seventy-three children in Sharjah, UAE, using a structured interview method. The findings highlight children’s inclination toward positive attitudes in science education, including the importance of knowledge acquisition for applying scientific concepts in real-life contexts, hands-on activities inside and outside the classroom, and child-centered learning approaches. Based on these findings, the study provides recommendations and conclusions to enhance science education experiences for young children.

Computers and computer‐assisted instruction are being used with increasing frequency in the area of health science student education, yet students’ attitudes towards the use of e‐learning technology and computer‐assisted instruction have received limited attention to date. The purpose of this study was to investigate the significant predictors of health science students’ attitudes towards e‐learning and computer‐assisted instruction. All students enrolled in health science programmes (n=2885) at a large multi‐campus Australian university in 2006‐2007, were asked to complete a questionnaire. This included the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES), the Computer Attitude Survey (CAS), and the Attitude Toward Computer‐Assisted Instruction Semantic Differential Scale (ATCAISDS). A multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the significant predictors of health science students’ attitudes to e‐learning. The Attitude Toward Computers in General (CASg) and the Attitude Toward Computers in Education (CASe) subscales from the CAS were the dependent (criterion) variables for the regression analysis. A total of 822 usable questionnaires were returned, accounting for a 29.5 per cent response rate. Three significant predictors of CASg and five significant predictors of CASe were found. Respondents’ age and OLES Equity were found to be predictors on both CAS scales. Health science educators need to take the age of students and the extent to which students perceive that they are treated equally by a teacher/tutor/instructor (equity) into consideration when looking at determinants of students’ attitudes towards e‐learning and technology.

Governments and organizations worldwide are concerned over the declining number of young people choosing to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), especially after the age of 16. Research has foregrounded that students with positive attitudes toward science are more likely to find it relevant and aspire to a science career. This study aims to understand the factors shaping students’ attitudes as these are pivotal in promoting science learning.

This study uses the framework of science capital to understand what shapes young people’s engagement with or resistance to science. The authors conducted four Computational Thinking making-based workshops with 106 children aged 15–16 years, of which 58 filled in a questionnaire and 22 were interviewed. Statistical and content analyses were performed respectively.

The results indicate that children who are more exposed to science-related activities and contexts are more likely to have higher self-efficacy, and that those with higher prior coding experience scored higher in their self-efficacy and science capital. Six themes emerged from the content analysis, highlighting the diverse factors shaping students’ attitudes, such as teaching methods, stereotypes and the degree of difficulty encountered while engaging with science in and out of school.

By combining qualitative and quantitative methods with the use of science capital, the authors found a number of aspects of the school experience that shape students’ attitudes to science learning in and out of school, as well as their science career aspirations.

Purpose – The aim of this study is to determine the effects of inquiry instruction incorporating with STEM learning on Chemistry Education of Malikussaleh University students’ science process skills and science attitudes.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The pre-experimental design, which is a mixed method approach is used in the study that included a pretest-posttest one group model and descriptive quantitative.

Findings – As a result of data analysis that STEM learning significantly enhances students’ science process skills and attitudes toward inquiry instruction. This study examines how participation in a semester long inquiry-based STEM learning project that involves interdisciplinary skills, sociological research on attitudes, and behaviors enhances the scientific and quantitative literacies of STEM students.

Research Limitations/Implications – Quantitative research is needed to determine the more common effects of learning outcomes. However, this study only determines a self-assessment on science attitudes. The other one is a limitation on the participants and reviewing aspects of learning with more variables in order to obtain more optimal results.

Practical Implications – The results of this study have practical implications in terms of hands-on activities. The learning model can be used to explain the concept of multidisciplinary studies and particularly to students and their parents. It will be a useful model for lecturers, personal tutors, and any other practitioners involved in hands-on activities.

Originality/Value – This paper innovative at a conceptual level of education development for students, graduates, and it is very simple descriptive papers. It will be of value to anybody with an interest in education competitiveness issues.

Reports the results of a survey of 3,600 11‐16 year‐olds which explored the relationships between scientific knowledge and beliefs, attitudes towards science and scientists, and involvement, actual or prospective, in scientific activities. Describes the influences which predict whether young people will choose a job in science. Concludes that it is important for policy makers to recognize the role of broader socio‐political attitudes in determining job decisions. Further emphasizes the role of parental support and attitudes in shaping the job decisions of young people.

In explaining the mechanisms that explicate individuals' acceptance of genetically modified (GM) food, one mechanism that has been largely ignored in the growing body of current research lies in the influence of “meta (wider) attitudes” such as the general attitudes towards science. This article, drawing on survey evidence from Spain, aims to examine the causal relationship between attitudes towards science and attitudes towards GM food.

The research employs structural equation modeling and explores this association by using sub‐samples made of regional groups that have GM agriculture.

The results suggest specific behavioral mechanisms in explaining GM consumer attitudes involving attitudes towards science whilst medical and food applications appear to have no (or mild) significant connection in the formation of attitudes towards GM food. Significant influence from age and previously characterized attitude in the formation of structural models is found.

The article has implications for a better understanding of the behavioral mechanisms behind the acceptance of GM food.

This article puts forward several hypotheses on the influence of general meta‐attitudes (towards science and technology) underpinning behavioral explanations for consumer judgments of acceptance towards GM food.

As the aging population increases steadily, the demands for specialized nurses and geriatricians willing to work in geriatric settings will probably explode. Accordingly, the medical sciences students’ attitude toward older adults and their willingness to work with them must be determined. This study aims to determine the medical sciences students’ attitude toward older people and its relationship with their willingness to work with this population. In addition, it sought to determine the variables that could predict students’ attitudes toward the elderly.

A cross-sectional design using a stratified random sampling method was used to recruit a sample of 305 Iranian medical sciences students with a response rate of 97.4%. The instruments for data collection were composed of three parts: socio-demographic characteristics of participants, Kogan’s Attitudes toward Old People Scale and the Willingness to Work with Elderly People Scale (WEPS). Data were analyzed in SPSS version 23 (IBM SPSS statistics 23.0).

The participants’ mean (SD) age was 22.95 (2.53). Most of them (69%) were women, and 51% were nursing students. The findings showed that 70% of students had a slightly positive attitude toward the elderly and only 12.8% of them declared geriatric setting as their workplace preference in the future. Experience of volunteering activities with elders, WEPS score, workplace preference after graduation and gender were the predictors of medical science students’ attitudes toward the elderly.

This paper further develops previous research on the attitudes of Iranian medical sciences students toward older adults.

Environmental behavior studies suggest that knowledge, in addition to other psychological and social factors, can play an important role in consumers’ environmental behavior change. The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between knowledge and various psychological factors which encourage consumers’ participation in pro-environmental behaviors. The relationships that link an individual’s attitudes toward science, environmental values, different types of knowledge (i.e. scientific facts, environmental facts, and subjective environmental knowledge), environmental risk perception, and willingness to pay (WTP) for the environment with pro-environmental behavior were examined.

Theoretically guided hypotheses and model were formulated and tested with multiple linear regression models. The study was based on measures and data obtained from the large-sample secondary database of the 2010 General Social Survey (n=2,044).

Results indicated that while attitudes toward science had direct effects on knowledge of scientific facts and knowledge of environmental facts, environmental values showed effects on knowledge of environmental facts and subjective knowledge on environmental issues. The results also indicated that from different types of knowledge, subjective knowledge on environmental issues had effects on both environmental risk perception and WTP for the environment. Knowledge on environmental facts, on the other hand, was able to predict only environmental risk perception. The scientific factual knowledge did not show an effect on mediator of pro-environmental behavior. Also, subjective knowledge indicated indirect effects on pro-environmental behavior through environmental risk perception and WTP for the environment.

Although research on understanding factors influencing pro-environmental behaviors and potential relations to individual knowledge has grown in recent years, there has been very little attempt at distinguishing between different types of knowledge and investigating their potential roles in the context of environmentally relevant behaviors. This study will help understand the functioning of different types of consumer environmental knowledge and their impacts on pro-environmental behaviors more in depth.

This study aims to explore the influence of science fiction on innovators and present a comprehensive model using the theory of planned behavior and social support theory to discuss the impact of science fiction on the intention of becoming an innovation worker.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted in this study and responses were obtained from 244 Chinese innovators.

The results revealed the adequacy of the proposed model and the above-mentioned constructs in explaining innovation intention. Science fiction perception was found to influence the intention of becoming an innovation worker directly. Subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and attitude directly influence the intention of becoming an innovation worker. Additionally, attitude is a mediator between science fiction perception and the intention of becoming an innovation worker. Moreover, social support network moderates the relationship between attitude and intention.

These results shed light on the mechanism by which science fiction influence innovators as well as provide critical managerial implications for policymakers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the perceptions of students of health sciences on research training programs offered at Saudi universities.

A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to capture the perceptions of health science students about research training programs offered at selected Saudi universities. A criterion-based sampling technique was adopted, and accordingly, 630 students were selected to participate in the study. A pre-tested questionnaire tool titled, “Students Attitude towards Research (SAR) questionnaire ”, was used to capture student responses on a five-point Likert scale with respect to three dimensions, namely, extent of research activities offered in their college, involvement of faculty in research and the infrastructural facilities offered by the college for research. The students’ attitudes with respect to various components of research training programs were analyzed using mean and cumulative percentage of students satisfied with the training. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to study whether there is any significant difference in attitudes among the students belonging to four health science programs of the seven selected universities.

The results of this study demonstrate that only less than 50 per cent of the students from the selected health science colleges are satisfied with the existing research training programs. There are significant differences in the students’ attitude toward research training programs offered in seven selected Saudi universities.

This is the first Saudi Arabia-based study that provides an alarming signal to educational-policy planners on students’ perceptions and attitudes toward research training programs offered in Saudi higher education institutions.