IDENTIFYING INDONESIAN UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ORIENTATIONS TO LEARN SCIENCE AND GENDER EFFECT THROUGH THE USE OF STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine Indonesian upper-secondary school students’ learning orientation in science via generating structural equation modeling of conceptions of, approaches to and self-efficacy in learning science, and seeking whether the model is significantly different based on gender. A total of 600 (63% females) Indonesian upper-secondary school students completed a questionnaire with three constructs – conceptions of, approach to and self-efficacy in learning science. Rasch analysis was conducted before testing the hypothesized model to examine the psychometric aspects of the instruments. Structural equation modeling featured with multi-group analysis-based gender was used to respond to the main research purpose. Findings indicated that the Indonesian upper-secondary school students had multiple conceptions of as well as multiple approaches to science learning that led to different senses of self-efficacy. Multiple conceptions and mixed approaches are the characteristics of students with achieving orientations. Most importantly, the current research found that conceiving learning science as memorizing was considered as the basis for the higher level of conceptions. The model significantly differed based on gender. Three main differences were Indonesian female students tended to be more conceiving science learning as memorization, using more surface motive and their self-efficacy was more impacted by their higher level of conceptions – applying and understanding than males. Based on findings, gender issues in orientations to studying and Indonesian science education curriculum are discussed. Keywords: learning strategies, conceptions of learning, gender, learning orientations, multi-group analysis, self-efficacy.