A Comparison of Attitudes, Experiences and Motivation toward Undergraduate Research of

Science Major Students of the University of the Philippines Los Baos

Josh Lendel G. De Jesus
Carl Kenneth C. Reyes
BS Mathematics and Science Teaching
Prof. Ivan Marcelo A. Duka
MST 190 Adviser
ABSTRACT
In the Philippine setting, colleges make undergraduate research/research courses as a requirement
for students who want to receive a baccalaureate degree. The objectives of the study were to identify the
beliefs and attitudes of the students towards undergraduate research; compare the differences between
their beliefs and attitudes and their accessibility and self-efficacy in conducting science research; describe
their motivations and other factors that may affect their participation in research, and; gain understanding
to the possible differences between the beliefs, attitudes and other constructs of pre-medical and non-premedical students.
In conducting the study, convenience sampling was used. A total of 154 respondents from three
different classes at UPLB (BIO 101, NASC 4 and NASC 7) were surveyed of their study option, plan
after graduation, beliefs, attitudes, intrinsic motivation and social influences that may affect their
participation to undergraduate research. Most of the respondents chose the thesis and Special Problem
(SP) as their study option and for their plan after graduation, most of them prefer non-pre-medical
opportunities.
Median scores from the adapted Likert-scale questionnaire were used to test if there is a
significant difference between the median scores of the three classes. After running the two statistical tests
(Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn) in each construct to compare the differences of median of the respondents and
the pre-med and non-pre-med groups, only the construct of attitude of the NASC 7 and BIO 101
respondents towards research has significant difference.
Overall, the respondents believed that science research is important. Most scientific research are
useful to humanity. Also, they had a positive attitude regarding science research. Lastly, the respondents
acknowledged the barriers in conducting science research in the university, per se. They believed that
these problems may affect their self-efficacy before or during working with science research.