The Impact of Situational Factors on Attitudes about Physics

Attitudinal assessments in physics have been developed to probe what students believe about physics and learning physics. Both pre-instruction assessment scores and the change in those scores as a result of instruction (gains) been shown to be affected by factors such as student gender, previous experience with physics, and type of math required in the physics course. In this investigation we examine the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey to determine the effect of situational factors on assessment scores and gains. The effects of situational factors such as income and parent college experience were tested through statistical analysis of scores gathered throughout five semesters of introductory physics courses.