Sex‐stereotyped attitudes about science: can they be changed?

This paper describes and discusses some attitudes about science held by a group of ten‐year‐old children in Western Australia. It reports the results of two questionnaires administered to the children before and after their teachers participated in an in‐service programme, one of the aims of which was to reduce sex stereotyping of science. It is found that the children's attitudes about science became less sex‐stereotyped. The findings emphasize the importance of the influence of teachers’ science‐related attitudes and behaviour on those of their students and the possibility of changing students’ attitudes through appropriate in‐service training of their teachers.