Demographic Factors Associated with Students' Belief and Attitude towards Physics and Learning: A Cross-Sectional Study from Indonesia

Abstract

Students' Belief and Attitude (BA) towards physics and learning are believed to influence student performance in learning. Identification and exploration of students' BA are crucial aspects in supporting the quality of physics learning. The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Sciences Survey (CLASS) is an instrument that is widely used to identify and explore students' beliefs and attitudes towards physics and learning. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between each categories of CLASS and the impact of demographic characteristics (gender, study program, school origin, interest in becoming a teacher, and length of study) on student beliefs. This study aims to fill in this gap. Using CLASS to measure these beliefs and attitudes among 439 physics students and prospective physics teachers from 11 universities. The survey data was analyzed with the Pearson Correlation, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Overall, the results obtained show that all belief and attitude categories are significantly interconnected. Apart from that, there is also a positive and significant relationship between categories. This indicates that the three categories have demonstrated to be capable of constructing BA as a whole. However, no significant differences were discovered in the association between students' belief and attitudes towards physics and their learning based on demographic characteristics.