The development of girls’ and boys’ attitudes to science: A longitudinal study‡

Attitude‐to‐science tests were completed by 1300 pupils, at ten schools, when they were 11 years old and again two and a half years later. During that time their interest in most branches of science decreased, but both girls and boys became more interested in learning about human biology. Their opinions about science and scientists also became generally less favourable, but pupils grew more willing to see science as suitable for girls. The attitude changes varied considerably from school to school, and were slightly better in schools which had implemented a programme of interventions to improve children's attitudes than in other schools. There was considerable stability in the attitudes of individual children over the period of the study. ‡ An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Interests in Science and Technology Education, IPN, Kiel, Germany, April 1984 and appears in the proceedings: Lehrke, M., Hoffman, L. and Gardner, P. L. (eds) (1985) Interests in Science and Technology...