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What makes science interesting? Inve...

Swarat, Su L.

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What makes science interesting? Investigating middle school students' interest in school science.

Record Type:	Language materials, printed : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	What makes science interesting? Investigating middle school students' interest in school science./
Author:	Swarat, Su L.
Description:	263 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4629.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International70-12A.
Subject:	Education, Middle School. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3386499
ISBN:	9781109518467

What makes science interesting? Investigating middle school students' interest in school science.
Swarat, Su L.

What makes science interesting? Investigating middle school students' interest in school science. - 263 p.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4629.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2009.

Given the reasonable assumption that interest motivates learning, an important goal of science education ought to be to foster students' interest in science. Recent research, however, has reported a trend of low or declining interest in science among young students, which suggests that school science has not been effective in meeting this goal. A review of relevant literature reveals that current knowledge on what makes science interesting to students is very limited. This dissertation research is thus aimed at contributing to our understanding of what makes science interesting, and for whom, with a focus on school science. Using instructional episodes as the unit of analysis, this study investigated the effect of curricular elements, learning environment factors, and individual student characteristics on student interest. Using a mixed method approach involving large-scale questionnaires (quantitative) and in-depth in situ studies (qualitative), middle school students' interest both in hypothetical learning situations and as it occurs in actual science classrooms was examined. The findings indicate that when judging the interestingness of an instructional episode, students focus on the form of activity rather than content topics and learning goals. In particular, activities that allow students to be actively engaged (either physically or intellectually) elicit relatively high interest, whereas activities that are passive in nature tend to be perceived as uninteresting. From the individual perspective, students' motivation orientations seem to explain much of the between-individual differences, with students who prefer challenging learning situations and who care about scientific issues demonstrating higher interest in science. The findings also suggest that the most effective factor that enhances interest is likely to be whether an instructional episode offers the potential for students to gain new knowledge, and surprisingly, such opportunities are reported to be rare in students' science classrooms. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for curriculum design, instructional practice, and future research.

ISBN: 9781109518467Subjects--Topical Terms:

1030813
Education, Middle School.

What makes science interesting? Investigating middle school students' interest in school science.
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020 $a 9781109518467
035 $a (UMI)AAI3386499
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100 1 $a Swarat, Su L. $3 1680035
245 1 0 $a What makes science interesting? Investigating middle school students' interest in school science.
300 $a 263 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4629.
500 $a Adviser: Andrew Ortony.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2009.
520 $a Given the reasonable assumption that interest motivates learning, an important goal of science education ought to be to foster students' interest in science. Recent research, however, has reported a trend of low or declining interest in science among young students, which suggests that school science has not been effective in meeting this goal. A review of relevant literature reveals that current knowledge on what makes science interesting to students is very limited. This dissertation research is thus aimed at contributing to our understanding of what makes science interesting, and for whom, with a focus on school science. Using instructional episodes as the unit of analysis, this study investigated the effect of curricular elements, learning environment factors, and individual student characteristics on student interest. Using a mixed method approach involving large-scale questionnaires (quantitative) and in-depth in situ studies (qualitative), middle school students' interest both in hypothetical learning situations and as it occurs in actual science classrooms was examined. The findings indicate that when judging the interestingness of an instructional episode, students focus on the form of activity rather than content topics and learning goals. In particular, activities that allow students to be actively engaged (either physically or intellectually) elicit relatively high interest, whereas activities that are passive in nature tend to be perceived as uninteresting. From the individual perspective, students' motivation orientations seem to explain much of the between-individual differences, with students who prefer challenging learning situations and who care about scientific issues demonstrating higher interest in science. The findings also suggest that the most effective factor that enhances interest is likely to be whether an instructional episode offers the potential for students to gain new knowledge, and surprisingly, such opportunities are reported to be rare in students' science classrooms. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for curriculum design, instructional practice, and future research.
590 $a School code: 0163.
650 4 $a Education, Middle School. $3 1030813
650 4 $a Education, Educational Psychology. $3 1017560
650 4 $a Education, Sciences. $3 1017897
650 4 $a Education, Curriculum and Instruction. $3 576301
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710 2 $a Northwestern University. $b Education and Social Policy - Learning Sciences. $3 1058233
773 0 $t Dissertation Abstracts International $g 70-12A.
790 1 0 $a Ortony, Andrew, $e advisor
790 1 0 $a Revelle, William $e committee member
790 1 0 $a Gomez, Louis $e committee member
790 $a 0163
791 $a Ph.D.
792 $a 2009
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3386499