Differences in the attitudes and beliefs about science of students in the physics-mathematics and life sciences areas and their impact on teaching

TL;DR

This study compares the attitudes and beliefs about science among physics-mathematics and life sciences students at university start, revealing differences in problem-solving behaviors and discussing implications for teaching strategies.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of science attitudes between student groups using the CLASS survey, highlighting differences and potential teaching impacts.

Findings

Life science students show more novice problem-solving behaviors.

Both groups had similar high-school physics education.

Differences in attitudes may influence teaching approaches.

Abstract

For this study, we compared the attitudes and beliefs about science of physical science (physics and mathematics) and life science (biochemistry and biology) students at the beginning of their university degrees using the CLASS (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey) tool. It is worth noting that both groups of students received similar physics courses during their high-school education. Through a detailed analysis of the different categories of the test, we examined the differences in performance in each of the areas that make up the questionnaire. Among other aspects, we found that a considerable percentage of life science students (higher than that of physical science students) adopted a novice type of behavior in problem solving. Finally, we discussed the possible causes of the differences found and their implications for teaching.