Resumen

GARRITZ, Andoni. Attitudes toward teaching/learning chemistry: Celebration of the International Year of chemistry. Educ. quím [online]. 2011, vol.22, n.2, pp.86-89. ISSN 0187-893X.

Attitude as a construct has been defined in multiple ways, for example, as "a predisposition to respond positively or negatively to things, people, places, events, or ideas". Students' interest and attitudes toward science as well as their perceptions of how well they will perform in learning contexts may play important roles in developing a meaningful understanding of scientific concepts, an understanding that goes beyond rote memorization toward the ability to explain everyday phenomena with current scientific knowledge. A worrying issue reported by researchers is that primary school students seem to have a positive attitude toward science, but this attitude diminishes gradually, so that upon arriving at secondary school it has changed to a negative attitude, mainly in females. The first stumbling block for research into attitudes towards science, is that such attitudes do not consist of a single unitary construct, but rather of a large number of pieces and contributions all of which contribute in varying proportions towards an individual's attitudes towards science. Several studies have incorporated a range of components in their measures of attitudes to science including: the perception of the science teacher; anxiety toward science; the value of science; self-esteem at science; motivation towards science; enjoyment of science; attitudes of peers and friends towards science; attitudes of parents towards science; the nature of the classroom environment; achievement in science; and fear of failure on course. Within the interest literature, the relationship between interest and learning has focused on three types of interest: individual, situational, and topic. Individual interest is considered to be an individual's predisposition to attend to certain stimuli, events, and objects. Situational interest is elicited by certain aspects of the environment. These include content features such as human activity or life themes, and structural features such as the ways in which tasks are organized and presented. Topic interest, the level of interest triggered when a specific topic is presented, seems to have both individual and situational aspects.

Palabras llave : Attitudes; interest; self-concept; self-esteem; anxiety.

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