This study aimed to examine the effect of the problem-based learning (PBL) on science attitudes of middle school students from low socio-economic status families. For this purpose, two intact classes of the same teacher were randomly assigned as experimental and control groups. In the unit of genetics, the experimental group was taught by PBL while the control group received traditional instruction. Students' attitudes were measured in terms of adoption of scientific attitudes, enjoyment of science lessons, and career interest in science administering a self-report instrument as a pre-test and a post-test. Results showed that after the treatment, although there were not statistically significant differences between two groups with respect to attitude toward science; in the experimental group, the mean scores were found to be consistently higher across all attitude dimensions compared to the control group. In addition, the mean scores suggested an improvement in the attitudes of experimental group students from pre-test to post test. Qualitative findings also revealed that students found PBL enjoyable. According to PBL students, searching for information and writing reports were among the features of the PBL contributing to their learning the most.

中文翻译：

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调查来自低社会经济地位家庭学生的科学态度：基于问题的学习的影响

本研究旨在探讨基于问题的学习 (PBL) 对低社会经济地位家庭中学生科学态度的影响。为此，同一教师的两个完整班级被随机分配为实验组和对照组。遗传学单元中，实验组采用PBL教学，对照组采用传统教学。学生的态度是根据科学态度的采用、科学课程的享受和对科学的职业兴趣来衡量的，他们使用自我报告工具作为前测和后测。结果显示，治疗后，虽然两组在科学态度方面的差异无统计学意义；在实验组中，与对照组相比，所有态度维度的平均得分始终较高。此外，平均分数表明实验组学生从前测到后测的态度有所改善。定性调查结果还表明，学生发现 PBL 是愉快的。根据 PBL 学生的说法，搜索信息和撰写报告是 PBL 对他们学习贡献最大的功能之一。