Attitudes and motivations of high school science students and university students toward the learning of Physics

Abstract

Taking into account that students' attitudes and motivations could affect their behavior and learning, the aim of this paper is to analyze those attitudes and motivations toward the learning of physics of high school students (16-18) and university students of several scientific degrees. Data was gathered both at the start and at the end of the 2013/2014 academic year and they provided some conclusions: first, the results indicate that whereas the attitudes of students improved significantly in the first year of the degree in physics and the degree in engineering, those improvements were not enough to provide changes in the motivation of the students. On the other hand, not only does the gender differences persist nowadays, but they are also increased during the academic year regardless of the stage where students are.