An-Najah Staff

This study aimed at identifying teachers attitudes towards the teaching of sex education in public schools. To identify attitudes, the researcher raised the following questions: 1. What ate the public school teachers’ attitudes towards the teaching of sex education in public schools in the northern governorates of Palestine? 2. What ate the roles of sex, experience, specialization, academic qualification, school stage variables on teachers’ attitudes towards teaching sex education in public school? 3. What ate thc differences among the attitude dimensions towards the teaching sex education in public schools in northern Palestine governorates? To answer the research questions, the researcher developed a questionnaire of(76) items distributed among three dimensions religious-social; educational and scientific. The population of the study was public school teachers (males and females) in Palestine’s northern governorates: Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Salfit. The total number was (7008). The questionnaire, in its final version, was administered to randomly selected sample (12% of the target population). The sample comprised of (840) teachers in the second semester l999/2000. Using means to determine the scores of the three dimensions, the study have shown that the religious-social domain had occupied the first place. The overall score of attitudes of this dimensions was positive and the percentage was (62.2%). The educational dimensions come second in rank, but its overall score of attitudes was negative and its percentage came to (59%). The public school teachers overall score of attitude toward the teaching of sex education was positive in all dimensions. The percentage of response amounted to (60.2%). The t-test also revealed that the males' attitudes were higher than females’ on academic and educational dimentions. No statistically significant differences were found between males and females on the social religious dimensions. The t-test also showed that the attitudes ofscience majors were higher those of` arts majors. Attitudes of those holding B.A. or B.SC. degree and above were also higher than the attitudes of those holding diplomas or high school certificate. High school teachers attitudes were Found to be higher that attitudes of teachers in the primary between educational and academic dimensions which may be attitude to school stage variable. The One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that there were differences among all dimensions which may be attributed to experience variable. The study also showed that there were differences between teachers having less than five years of experience and those having more than ten years of expericnce in favor of the former teachers. There were also differences between teachers with (5-10) years of experience and teachers with more than ten years of experience in favor of those having (5-l O) years of experience. By using repeated Manova, the results of statistical analysis revealed that there were differences among dimensions of attitudes. The results showed that there were differences between religious-social dimensions and academic dimensions in favor of social religious dimensions. There were differences also between religious-social dimentions and educational dimentions in favor of the former dimensions. However, no differences were found between the academic and educational distinctions. In the light of these findings, the researcher has arrived at aset of recommendations: holding in-service training courses for teachers; empowering the role ofthe mass media; publishing a refereed journal by the Ministry of Education; conducting analytical studies of values in textbooks; holding meeting between teachers and parents to explain concept of sex education.