EFFECT OF CONTEXT-BASED QUESTIONS ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ TEST ANXIETY AND SCIENCE ATTITUDE

Abstract

The context-based questions have promise and potential to reduce the test anxiety of students and improve their attitudes towards science. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of context-based questions on test anxiety and science attitude of students. The research design employed was a quasi-experimental equivalent control group with a pre-test and post-test design. Samples were 70 secondary school students, selected from the 185 seventh grade students at a public school in Turkey. Test Anxiety and Science Attitude Scales were used to measure their test anxiety and attitude towards science, respectively. The results of the data analysis indicated that the context-based questions significantly reduced the test anxiety of the students in the experimental group and improved their attitudes towards science. In contrast, the conventional questions increased the test anxiety of the control group students, but no significant effect in science attitude was found among them. Further, the results showed that there was a relationship between the pre- and post-test scores of the test anxiety and science attitude of both the experimental and control groups. Key words: attitudes, context-based questions, conventional questions, secondary school students, test anxiety.