Oceans Versus Robots: Exploring the Importance of Topic Effects in Student Science Engagement

• In Event: Activating Young Science Learners: Igniting Persistent Engagement in Science Learning and Inquiry

Abstract

The integration of contextual influences and internal motivational factors give rise to an array of learning experiences that can support students’ cognitive development in science (Ginsburg & Golbeck, 2004; Renninger, Ewen, & Lasher, 2002). Knowing that children’s cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement with an activity is largely influenced by their interest in the content of the task (Hidi & Rinninger, 2006), assuring that student interest is encouraged and maintained in science activities and curricula is crucial. Research on children’s science interest enables researchers and educators to collectively support students’ curiosity and science inquiry across their school-aged years. However, measurement techniques investigating “science” generally may attenuate the important effects of topic specific interest. Additionally, instruments asking broadly about “science” may obscure gender effects (Bybee & McCrae, 2011; Jenkins & Pell, 2006), which may account for variation in engagement and learning outcomes between male and female students. The field of science contains broad disciplines (e.g., biology, physics) comprised of subtopics (e.g., cells, atoms), any of which may be differentially interesting to a child. Sensitivity to such issues is required to more successfully understand children’s science learning as well as validating psychological measurement tools.

Through the development and validation of a science survey instrument, we purposefully examined the ways specific science content can influence student engagement and persistence towards science. We explored these topic effects on various factors including gender, age, and setting. Using an online self-report survey assessment, we have data on over 400 children from 5th to 9th grade in a variety of formal and informal settings and we are continuing our collection efforts. The current survey development incorporates various motivational construct items (e.g., interest, goal orientation, persistence) that have been adapted to contain specific science topics (e.g., robots) balanced across broad science disciplines (e.g. biology), as well as a number of items asking about “science” generally. The survey is also balanced across learning contexts (e.g., formal and informal) and ways of engaging with science (e.g., hands-on).

The current data conveys strong topic effects between and within students, as well as across gender. Interestingly, general “science” questions show little variation between genders, whereas topic specific item groupings, such as engineering, show strong differences between male and female students. Initial multi-dimensional scaling results suggest male and female students vary in their affinity for particular topics and that these topic clusters differ from the traditional science disciplines (e.g., astronomy, physics). Future analyses will include both quantitative (e.g., hierarchical data modeling) and qualitative (e.g., interview) methods to more fully explore these issues in a holistic way. Understanding children’s nuanced interest enables researchers and educators to be sensitive to these variations and provide learning opportunities that best capture student curiosity and encourage motivation and persistence towards understanding science concepts.

Authors

• Meghan Bathgate, University of Pittsburgh

• Richard James Correnti, University of Pittsburgh

• Jessica Degol, University of Pittsburgh