NIU researchers study televised

By tephanie Bradley

Two NIU reseachers discussed on a Chicago television series Sunday the attitudes of junior high and high school students toward math and science and how these attitudes affect job opportunities.

Steve Franklin of the Office of Public Information said the show featured Jon Miller, director of the Public Opinion Laboratory, and Thomas Hoffer, a research associate at the Social Science Research Institute.

The show, which aired at 6:30 a.m. on WBBM Channel 2 Chicago, was entitled “Objective: Jobs,” Franklin said. Bill Lowry, vice president of personnel for Inland Steel, hosted the show, he said.

Franklin said he sent a press release to the program’s producer, Suzanne Farrar, about the researchers’ work. Farrar found the subject interesting and set up a taping, Franklin said.

Miller said he is conducting a “five-year study of junior high and high school students’ attitudes toward math and science. Their attitudes will be measured through achievement scores, interviewing parents and surveying teachers.”

The study will follow a national random sample of 6,500 students from 60 high schools and 60 junior high schools in 40 states, Hoffer said. This group is being studied because this is the age students decide if they would like to pursue math and science as a career, he said.

A question Miller hopes to answer with his study is why “girls who do well in math and science at the seventh- and eighth- grade level do not pursue or are not encouraged to pursue these subjects in high school.”

Research so far seems to indicate students whose parents liked, understood or held jobs in these areas encouraged their children to pursue them also, he said.

Miller said he has found most people think these subjects are for brighter rather than average students. However, he said he believes students should know something about these subjects even if they have no intention of going into a math or science career.

Hoffer said, “There is a lot of concern about science and math in the United States right now relating to economics and competitiveness.” U.S. students score lower on tests in these areas than their Japanese and European counterparts, he said.

“Students outside of high school college preparatory sequences take easier classes, usually not math and science,” Hoffer said. These subjects should be emphasized but should not detract from the importance of English and the social sciences, he said.

“We want to know why a small percentage of students are taking classes in these areas,” Hoffer said.