INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of this study is to understand the visitors’ perception of science after visiting the science thematic exhibition at the National Science Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study is intended to see if there are any significant differences between the pre and post-visit perception among visitors to the science thematic exhibition and whether these kinds of services meet the expectation of the visitors.
METHOD
The data were collected through questionnaires distributed personally to the visitors of science thematic exhibition titled: “The 1001 Inventions - Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilisation” at National Science Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 198 respondents were involved in this study. The questionnaires were selected from studies conducted by Radzilowicz (2008), Mey L.P. & Mohamed B. (2010) and Markovic S. et all., (2013) with some adjustment to suit the objectives of this study.
ANALYSIS
The standard SPSS (version 19.0) was used to analyze the data. This study used both descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the respondents’ profile while inferential statistics was used to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. Pearson Correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the independent variables and the dependant variable. The mean gap analysis was done to understand the differences between expectation (pre-visit) and perception (post-visit) mean scores. The paired sample t-test was performed to determine the significance of differences between pre and post visit data.
RESULTS
The findings showed that there are statistically significant differences between the pre and post-visit perception of visitors to the science thematic exhibition. The correlation analysis showed that all the independent variables have either very strong or strong relationship with the dependent variable. The results also indicate that there are positive changes in visitors’ perception of science after visiting the science thematic exhibition and that they perceived better services than what was expected at the exhibition.
CONCLUSION
The science thematic exhibition is proven to have a significant influence on visitors’ pre and post visit perception of science. The National Science Centre should therefore continue to further improve on the facilities offered by the exhibition in view of its positive contribution towards enhancing visitors’ interest and awareness of the opportunities science and technology can offer towards the development of the country.