Managing Students’ Attitude towards Science through Problem – Solving Instructional Strategy

The study was designed to further clarify the claim by several authors that methods of instruction could change students’ attitude positively towards science. It was the belief of the author that if students were allowed to develop higher cognitive processes through problem solving strategies, either as teacher directed or self-directed, their attitudes toward chemistry might change positively. Therefore, the effect of teacher-directed and self-directed problem-solving strategies on students’ attitude toward chemistry was investigated. The four-stage (logical) model of solving Chemistry problems as suggested by Ashmore, Casey and Frazer (1979) was adopted for the study. The findings in this study showed that students in the experimental group developed more positive attitude towards Chemistry after the treatment. It was then recommended that teachers should adopt problem solving strategies in their teaching in order to win many more students to chemistry. Besides giving students the content, the process is equally important for them to comprehend some scientific concepts and principles. This could make them develop more positive attitude toward the learning of science.