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pp. 217-232 | Article Number: ijese.2012.017
Published Online: April 10, 2012
Abstract
This paper aims to give a picture of Greek students’ views about biology and some of the factors that affect them. A questionnaire measuring students’ intrinsic motivation to learn biology, individual interest in biology and perceived difficulty of biology, along with information about students’ gender, level, parents’ occupation and educational level was administered to 368 Greek students. Results revealed that Greek secondary school students have almost neutral overall views about biology they are slightly positive about biology’s usefulness in their lives, perceive it as rather easy, but 26.4% finds no interest in it. Gender does not seem to affect students’ overall views about biology, neither their scores in any of the subscales - biology in Greece is as popular among boys as among girls. Younger and older students differ only in their perceived difficulty of biology, with the older students considering it more difficult than the younger ones. Parents’ educational level (both mothers and fathers are taken into account) is important in affecting only students’ intrinsic motivation, since the more educated a parent is the higher intrinsic motivation a student has towards biology. arents’ occupation does not affect students’ views about biology.
Keywords: biology, secondary school students’ views, interest, perceived difficulty, intrinsic motivation
References