Discovering new things is important - impact of independent activity in class on attitudes to learning chemistry in high school

The article presents the results of a action research, which is aimed at investigating the influence of independent learning activities in chemistry classes on students‘ attitudes to learning. The experimental activities were carried out in two consecutive school years with two classes with intensive study of English and different school profiles – computer sciences and chemistry-biology. Independent learning activities are carried out on tasks developed on the basis of the curriculum according to a technological model presented in the article. A survey with 10 statements was used to study students’ attitudes. The survey was conducted out for each class twice – before and after the experimental impacts. To check for a statistically significant difference in students‘ opinions and changes in attitudes towards learning chemistry, a non-parametric Wilcoxon criterion for related samples was applied. The results show positive changes in students‘ attitudes or retention at the entry level. The frequency analysis indicates that more than half of the students from each grade give positive feedback on the statements from the survey after carrying out the independent activities in class.