Constructs Evaluation of Student Attitudes Toward Science—A Rasch Analysis

The research on students’ attitudes toward science (SAS) is well-documented in the science education literature. Many studies examine SAS through the use of survey rating scales. The incorporation of SAS constructs; however, is affected by the subjective judgments of the researchers. We report here the examination of the three constructs in the measure of SAS based on the Asian student attitudes toward science (ASATSC) instrument. A total of 1,133 7th to 11th graders from China completed the ASATSC survey instrument. The Rasch measurement model was used to analyze the resulting student data. The findings indicated that psychometric properties of data collected from ASATSC were sufficient in the measure of SAS. The present study found that though Chinese students generally held positive attitudes toward physics and biology, they enjoyed studying physics more than biology and expressed higher confidence with biology.