SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITY IN COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL OF LITHUANIA: TEACHERS’ POSITION

Abstract

The formation of scientific research activity (SRA) abilities in comprehensive school is undoubtedly, a very important sphere that has not received a proper attention yet. Current teaching and learning process has changed, in fact, from the point of view of paradigm – subjects taught are becoming a means of the realization of learners’ needs and interests. Scientific research activity is not an entertainment but responsible, thorough work requiring a lot of self-independence. During such an activity pupils’ analytical thinking gets stronger, information searching and using abilities are formed, they learn how to analyze gathered material, prepare reports, make research presentations and so on. The research was carried out between January and April, 2010. The method of the research was survey in written form (questionnaire). On the whole, 380 questionnaires were acknowledged acceptable. The article deals with Natural science and Mathematics teachers’ opinion about the situation of scientific research activity in comprehensive school. A factor analysis was performed in order to find out the structure of 41 items. The main aim of the factor analysis is to reduce the number of variables. Two methods were applied in order to evaluate whether the data set was appropriate for the factor analysis: Bartlett`s Test of Sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy test value is 0.844. Bartlett's Test of Sphericity tests the null hypothesis that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. In this case approx. Chi-Square value is 3921.835 and p<0.000. These results clearly show that data can be used for factor analysis. The eight factors were extracted based on the Eigen Value Statistics (with the real value more than one). Also the significance (popularity) indexes (SI) and standards deviations (SD) for each factor were calculated. 1. Interest in scientific research activity (SI=0.67; SD=0.17). 2. Ignoring the scientific research activities (SI=0.59; SD=0.21). 3. Adverse (unfavourable) conditions of carrying out of scientific research activity (SI=0.43; SD=0.23). 4. Fragmentary of scientific research activity (SI=0.65; SD=0.20). 5. Adverse (unfavourable) material conditions of scientific research activity (SI=0.65; SD=0.20). 6. Lack qualification (competence) of teachers (SI=0.70; SD=0.25). 7. Employment (busyness) of learners and teachers (SI=0.68; SD=0.21). 8. Influence of the educational environment on scientific research activity (SI=0.76; SD=0.19). However, we need to emphasize, that significance indexes are relatively not high, though higher than 0.50. All these factors accounts for 47.00% of variance. There are 9 statements under the first factor, 6 statements under the 2nd factor, 5 statements under the 3rd factor, 4 statements under the 4th factor, 6 statements under the 5th factor, 3 statements under the 6th factor, 4 statements under the 7th factor and 3 statements under the 8th factor. The first factor forms 7.56% of total variance, the second factor constitutes 7.17% of total variance, the third factor forms 6.00% of total variance, the fourth factor forms 5.92% of total variance, the fifth factor constitutes 5.81% of total variance, the sixth factor forms 5.28% of total variance, the seventh forms 5.05% of total variance and the last one (eighth factor) constitutes 4.17% of total variance. It was found that in the teaching of scientific research activities the cooperation methods are used. It was found that in general the most favourable to SRA are biology and chemistry teachers, and the less favourable - teachers of geography. It was also found that highly significant factor in the development of scientific research activity is the educational environment. Key words: career, comprehensive school, factor analysis, scientific research activity, science education.