Vol. 14 (2007)
Articles

Students' Attitudes to Science in Urban and Rural Schools in Trinidad and Tobago

Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma
The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus
Bio

Keywords

  • Secondary School Students,
  • Science Education,
  • Student Attitudes,
  • Urban Schools,
  • Rural Schools,
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • ...More
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How to Cite

Students’ Attitudes to Science in Urban and Rural Schools in Trinidad and Tobago. (2015). Caribbean Curriculum, 14, 31-47. https://journals.sta.uwi.edu/ojs/index.php/cc/article/view/616

Abstract

This study is a pilot project that attempts to analyse, on a small scale, students' attitudes towards science in two different localities - one urban and one rural - in Trinidad and Tobago. Though the sample was small, the study suggests that students attending urban schools generally display a more positive attitude toward science - in terms of its perceived relevance and usefulness as well as its interest and challenge level - than students attending rural schools. Furthermore, the project revealed that the attitudes displayed by boys were different from those displayed by girls within each locality, and that the gender difference was more pronounced in the rural schools. Additionally, it was found that urban girls had the most positive attitudes towards science, while more than 80 percent of rural girls perceived science as being difficult, with many of them indicating that it was not a subject they were inclined to pursue at higher levels.