Saudi Students’ Views of Science and Technology

This study explores the views of secondary school students in Saudi Arabia towards science and technology, their attitudes and interests in relation to science and technology topics and what outside school experiences may have impacted their science learning experience. As well as comparing the perspectives between boys and girls, this study also compared Saudi students with those of countries participating in the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) project. This study included 610 students (288 girls and 322 boys) recruited from Buraidah City via random sampling. All participants were in the final year of compulsory education. Data were collected from 20 single-sex schools (10 schools for girls and 10 schools for boys) in 2017. A mixed-methods approach (quantitative and qualitative) was used to explore the views of Saudi students. The Arabic version of the ROSE questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data, whilst focus groups were employed to collect qualitative data. The qualitative data obtained were then used to interpret the quantitative data. The data were analysed using SPSS software. Descriptive analysis was used to find the mean and the chi-squared test was used to explore the statistical significance of the differences in item means between girls and boys. The results indicated an overall positive attitude towards science and technology and school science among the students. However, the findings showed negative attitudes towards some school science topics. The results also identified factors that influenced students’ attitudes towards school science. There were statistically significant differences between girls and boys in some of the items within the ROSE sections. Comparisons between countries highlighted the similarities and differences between Saudi Arabia and other countries in terms of students’ opinions towards learning school science and science in society. The findings of this research provide important information about the views of Saudi students on science, which can be used by science teachers in improving daily teaching practices in the classroom. The findings can also be used as references by education authorities to further improve and develop the science curriculum.