Second-Year College Students’ Scientific Attitudes and Creative Thinking Ability: Influence of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Chemistry Laboratory Course - Affective Dimensions in Chemistry Education - page 219

Table 3 Posttest-pretest
mean rank comparisons of the
treatment group on the
scientific attitude
questionnaire using the
Wilcoxon signed-ranks test
( N

Dimensions Z Sig. Effect size

Openness 2.01 0.04* 0.45

Curiosity 1.02 0.31 0.15

Criticism 2.40 0.02* 0.50

Cooperativeness 2.11 0.04* 0.35

20)

¼

Voluntariness 0.66 0.51 0.05

Persistence 0.93 0.35 0.10

Creativity 2.46 0.14* 0.35

Overall attitudes 2.93 0.00** 0.40

* p 0.01

Note : Effect size in terms of the PS (probabilistic superiority)
value is calculated for the two related samples design (Grissom &
Kim, 2012 )

0.05, ** p

< <

Table 4 Posttest-pretest
mean rank comparisons of the
comparison group on the
scientific attitudes
questionnaire using the
Wilcoxon signed-ranks test
( N ¼ 26)

Dimensions Z Sig. Effect size

Openness 2.15 0.32* 0.35

Curiosity 0.30 0.77 0.12

Criticism 0.27 0.79 0.00

Cooperativeness 0.57 0.57 0.15

Voluntariness 0.44 0.66 0.12

Persistence 0.29 0.77 0.12

Creativity 0.61 0.54 0.15

Overall attitudes 0.97 0.33 0.23

* p < 0.05
Note : Effect size in terms of the PS (probabilistic superiority)
value is calculated for the two related samples design (Grissom &
Kim, 2012 )

the openness and criticism dimensions. However, for the comparison group, the
pretest-posttest mean ranks were statistically significantly different ( p 0.05) for

only the openness dimension. The difference for the overall instrument was not
statistically significant. At the same time, the approximate effect size
(as categorized by Cohen, 1988 ) of the difference between the posttest and the
pretest for the comparison group was small or very small for all seven dimensions.
In other studies with Korean students, differences in the effectiveness of changes
in scientific attitudes were noted to be dependent on the participants and the course
design. For example, Shin and Lee ( 2011 ) reported that overall scientific attitudes
had changed significantly after the PBL-based astronomical observation program
with elementary science-gifted students, especially in the dimension of openness
and voluntariness but not in curiosity and criticism. According to Kim and Lee
( 2011 ), after the implementation of PBL with early childhood preservice teachers,
the overall scientific attitudes had changed significantly. In the study discussed in
this chapter, PBL was implemented in a laboratory course for second-year college
students. Inquiry processes, especially thinking of various methods to solve prob-
lems and selecting the best one, were emphasized throughout the entire course.

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