The construction of a questionnaire to evaluate the science orientedness of students’ identities as learners from a cognitive perspective Ruurd Taconis*, Lesley G.M. de Putter-Smits, Steven Henry, Perry J. den Brok and Douwe Beijaard Eindhoven School of Education, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (Received 24 April 2009; final version received 7 July 2010) Forming a science-oriented identity is considered a process underlying both interest and achievement in science education. A questionnaire is developed for describing ‘‘identities as learners’’ and evaluating their science orientedness. The instrument (k ¼ 65) focuses on cognitive aspects. An internal coherence of .88 was found. Five subscales were defined that proved interrelated yet distinguish- able. A pilot amongst 40 students from Dutch general secondary education showed that preferring science over non-science subjects and relatively high grades for sciences subjects were strongly correlated to science orientedness of the learner identity (r s ¼ .65; p 5 .001). The results support the reliability and validity of the questionnaire but also point to the importance of identity as a central concept in studying science education. It is concluded that we made a promising step in constructing an instrument for monitoring the development of cognitive aspects of science-oriented identities during (innovative) science education. Keywords: identity; cognitive; science education Learning science as enculturation in science In many Western industrialized countries, science is unpopular with students. Students consider it difficult and of low value for their personal lives and careers, enrolment is considered too low, and too few students choose science (Axis, 2003; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2005, 2006; Roth, 2003). This is especially true for female students (Carlone, 2004; Van Langen, 2005) and for students from minority backgrounds (Cobern & Aikenhead, 1998). One interpretation of these problems starts from the view of learning as enculturation into a subculture (Vygotsky, 1978). Enculturation is here defined as a process of critically incorporating elements of a subculture (here: science) within the broader process of one’s identity construction (Burke & Reitzes, 1991). In this process, participation in social-cultural practices plays a key role (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Learning or choosing science is seen as a process of ‘‘enculturation’’ of the learner into the specific ‘‘culture’’ of science (Aikenhead, 2001; Krogh & Thomsen, *Corresponding author. Email: R.Taconis@tue.nl Educational Research and Evaluation Vol. 16, No. 4, August 2010, 383–400 ISSN 1380-3611 print/ISSN 1744-4187 online Ó 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13803611.2010.528206 http://www.informaworld.com