THE RELATION OF GENDER AND TRACK ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD CONVERGENCE

Abstract

Preparing a positive attitude toward convergence is essential to help students grow into future generations with the ability to solve various complex problems. This research aims to examine high school students' attitude toward convergence and the relation to gender and track. Responses from 1,186 Indonesian students in tenth (10th) and eleventh (11th) grade were purposively collected. Students were administered twenty-three items of attitude toward convergence covering five constructs: knowledge, personal relevance, social relevance, interest, and self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using IRT-Rasch analyses, two-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and cluster analyses. The primary finding of this research presented that high school students’ attitude toward convergence on the construct of interest and self-efficacy is significantly related to gender and track. Female students show to be more interested in convergence than male students. However, female students have lower self-efficacy. Additionally, science track students tend to be more interested in convergence than humanities track and showing higher self-efficacy. After performing cluster analysis, students are divided into three particular groups according to their attitude toward convergence. Finally, customized learning is proposed to improve students’ attitude toward convergence. Keywords: attitude toward convergence, female, humanities track, male, science track.