Using Digital Art to Influence Students' Attitudes in High School Science Classrooms

Y

17

Visual Arts; Student Attitudes; High School Students; Secondary School Science; Grade 9; Scientific Attitudes; Science Activities; Creative Activities; Teaching Methods; Teacher Influence

2327-5324

Whether the activity of creating digital art influences high school students' attitudes toward science is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine if the creation of artistic digital chemoscans by high school students influences attitudes toward science. In this study, ninth- grade high school students' attitudes toward science were examined after participating in the creation of chemoscans in the science classroom. The theory of affective domain helped explain the process that leads to a person's behavior toward a certain phenomenon in the educational setting. The research questions concerned the use of chemoscan creation in the physical science classroom and if and whether implementation effected a change in students' attitudes toward science. Archival pre- and post-test data from the Test of Science Related Attitude was used to measure high school students' attitudes toward science in 7 categories. Archived student pre- and post-test data were treated with multiple regression for analysis. Key findings of this study showed that creation of artistic digital chemoscans: (1) impacted one of the seven subscales of science attitude from the Test of Science related Attitude (TOSRA) entitled attitude toward the normality of scientists; (2) did not have an impact on the any of the other six subscales from the TOSRA; and (3) was influenced by teacher effect. This study may contribute to social change by providing improved training for science teachers who implement digital art activities, which may lead to some students enjoying science more and then possibly going into science careers.

As Provided

2020

EJ1263987