Perceptions on knowledge, attitudes and enjoyment in non-formal science learning: science educators’, teachers’ and students’ views

The study aims to examine the perceptions on knowledge, attitudes and enjoyment from school group visits to the Malaysia National Science Centre (MNSC) from the perspectives of students, teachers and science educators. The research objectives of this study are to, (1) investigate science educators’ actions and contributions to students’ science learning in non-formal settings conducted by MNSC; (2) investigate teachers’ objectives for conducting school visits to the non-formal settings; and (3) investigate on how students perceived on knowledge, attitudes and enjoyment of school group visits to non-formal science learning. A mixed method approach was employed. The samples consisted of 353 students aged 10-14 for survey and 18 small groups interview from 26 primary and secondary schools in Malaysia. 40 teachers involved in the survey and 17 from them were interviewed. For science educator, eight of them were interviewed. The methods of data collection differentiated by locations of engagement; namely centre-based, single and multi-school outreach. Science educators’ believes that their goals in teaching and learning science at out-of-school settings as to create i) Awareness and appreciation towards science; ii) General concept understanding; and iii) Develop skills. Teachers’ believes their objectives of engaging their students in the out-of-school settings were to expose the students with new learning environment outside of school classroom. The main findings showed that overall students’ perception towards knowledge and enjoyment was very high which means that students really enjoyed doing activities outside the classroom. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that there were significant difference between locations of engagement for three scales measured in the study for students’ perceived science learning in non-formal settings. This study indicates that non-formal learning has a great potential in enriching science learning in formal classroom with the support from teacher and science educators together with the informal science institutions.