Senior High School Students' Attitudes Towards Research

Abstract

The Attitude towards Research Scale, developed by Elena T. Papanastasiou in 2005, was used to investigate the attitudes of 222 senior high school students from Holy Child Catholic School during the 2017–2018 school year who had already completed the Department of Education-mandated Practical Research Subjects (PR1 and PR2) for the K-12 program. The responses were evaluated using IBM-SPSS and descriptive survey and correlational research methodologies, as well as Pearson correlation coefficient and factorial MANOVA. The correlation between and among the five ATR subscales revealed that research positivity increases as research anxiety decreases, or vice versa, implying that SHS students are more likely to have a positive attitude toward research if they are having minimal difficulty doing research and thus have a lower anxiety level. In order to further explore students' interest in and attitudes toward research, it is suggested that teachers who are interested in the educational component of research construct an easier and course-related research program for building students' favorable attitudes about research. For SHS students, research should not be a burden but rather a problem-solving tool as they prepare for more rigorous research work in college. Establishing the importance and relevance of research to SHS students would help them appreciate research learning.

Keywords: Research attitude, Research positivity, Anxiety, Senior High School

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-20-06

Publication date:July 31^st 2022