AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS
Chapter 9 Awareness, Knowledge and Attitude Towards Science and Technology
9.3 Attitude Towards Science and Technology
The global environment that is continuously being driven by science and technology has given rise to the widespread recognition about the importance of science and technology. Humankind has long since realized the advantage of passing on to the next generation the appropriate attitude toward science and technology as a continuous effort to nurture skilled human resources in these areas. With this background in mind, it is therefore crucial to know the status of the attitude of Malaysians toward science and technology.
For the survey of Public Awareness of Science and Technology, 2002, a total of 15 statements were examined of which four statements were new. The new statements were: “Government should support S&T research”, “S&T is very important for societal advancement”, “Without S&T, humans cannot progress”, and “Civilisation has been created without the help of science and technology”.
For the existing 11 statements, the percentage of respondents agreeing with the statements had dropped substantially (Figure 9.7). The
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decline in the percentage of respondents agreeing with statements that relate to the role of science and technology does not augur well for the development of S&T, especially in an era that is S&T-driven. The statement “S&T make our life healthier, easier and more comfortable” continued to enjoy a high percentage of agreement at 80.6% even though the percentage agreeing with this statement has dropped by 6.5% from 2000.
The statement with the most substantial drop in the percentage of respondents agreeing with it was “New inventions will counteract harmful consequences of technological development” (26.1 percentage point decline).
The percentage of respondents agreeing with the statement “Daily chores are more interesting with the application of S&T” has dropped drastically from 86.2% in 2000 to
67.8% in 2002. Similarly, for statements “Most scientists work toward improving life” and “I need to know about science in my daily life”
had suffered substantial drop in percentage of respondents agreeing with them.
For the new statements, as high as 79% of the respondents agreed with the statement that government should support S&T research. Only 35.6% agreed with the statement that civilisation had been created without the help of science and technology.
The low percentage of agreement supported the importance of science and technology in the development of society. This is reflected in the percentage of respondents agreeing with the statement “S&T is important for societal advancement”.
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Chapter 9 Awareness, Knowledge and Attitude Towards Science and Technology
9.3.1 Age Group Comparison
The attitude of all the three age groups toward science and technology had grown less favourably, with the percentage decline being most drastic among children (Figure 9.8). Youths remained the group with the most favourable attitude toward science and technology even though the decline cut across all age groups. For children, they were least positive about S&T-related benefits. For example, the percentage of children who agreed with the statement “Daily chores are more interesting with the application of S&T”
has dropped by 28%. For the same statement,
the percentage decline was 19% for the adults and 11.9% for youths. For the new statements that were added in the Survey of 2002, youths were more positive compared to the adults as well as children. As high as 84% agreed that government should support S&T research compared to children (71.6%) and adults (79.0%).
9.3.2 Rural Urban Comparison
Findings of the 2002 survey indicated that urban respondents in general had a more positive attitude toward science and technology compared to those in the rural areas (Figure
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9.9). For the new statements added, a larger proportion of urban respondents agreed, indicating a more positive attitude toward science and technology. The statement in which the difference between urban and rural respondents is the greatest was “I need to know about science in my life” as 66.3% of the urban respondents agreed while only 59.5% of rural folks did so. The smaller percentage (34.4%) of urban respondents who agreed with the statement “Civilisation had been created without the help of science and technology”
was lower compared to rural respondents (36.7%) confirmed that urban respondents had a more positive outlook toward S&T.
9.3.3 Educational Level and Attitude Towards S&T
Consistent with expectations, respondents with university education had a more positive attitude toward S&T compared to those with secondary or primary school education (Figure 9.10). More than 80% of those with tertiary education agreed that “S&T make life healthier, easier and more comfortable”, “Government should support S&T”, and “S&T is very important for societal advancement”. Those with secondary level of education had a substantial percentage
(81.1%) agreeing with the statement “S&T Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report
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Chapter 9 Awareness, Knowledge and Attitude Towards Science and Technology
make our life healthier, easier, and more comfortable”. For those with primary level of education, 70.1% of the respondents reported in agreement with the same statement, i.e., “S&T make life healthier, easier and more comfortable”.
Not withstanding the level of education, a smaller percentage of respondents agreed that “Quality of science and mathematics education in the school is not satisfactory” compared to previous years, hinting that a higher percentage agreed that quality of science and mathematics education is satisfactory. Analysis of their understanding of science and technology will throw some light on the status of scientific literacy among the Malaysian population.
Regardless of the level of education, all respondents showed low level of agreement with the statement “Civilization had been created without the help of science and technology”. This indicates that indirectly the respondents acknowledged the role of science and technology in civilization. This assertion is further supported by the low level of agreement with the statement “People depend too much on science, less on faith” (22.7%, 21.9%, and 19.6% for tertiary, secondary and primary school education, respectively).
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9.3.4 Gender Comparison
On the whole, a slightly higher percentage of males compared to females agreed with the statements examined in the Survey (Figure 9.11). Both genders shared similar attitude about science making life healthier, easier and more comfortable. Almost an equal percentage of males and females agreed that government should support S&T research, quality of science and mathematics education is not satisfactory, new inventions will counteract harmful consequences of technological advancement, and that S&T is very important for societal advancement. The only statement that males and females differed in the percentage of respondents in agreement
was “Scientists should research about health even if it causes pain to animals” in which 37.5% of males agreed compared to 34.0% of females.
For males, statements that were met with high level of agreement were: “S&T make life healthier, easier and more comfortable”,
“Government should support S&T research”
and “S&T is very important for societal development”. Similarly, a high percentage of females also showed agreement to these three statements.
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