The Interplay Among Interest, Motivation, and Task Characteristics and Its Impact on Chemistry Test Performance

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: The Interplay of Math, Science, and Literacy I

Abstract

Assessing competencies is a crucial part in science education research. It is of particular interest to know the factors influencing students’ answers on test items. While research has mainly investigated cognitive factors (such as prior knowledge), affective variables focusing on test tasks itself have received only little attention so far. Our study tried to close this gap by investigating, how motivation, situational interest and perceived relevance concerning the test items affect students’ answers in a chemistry test that covers different context and content areas. Results show that motivation, interest and perceived relevance vary between the different contexts and contents of test items, and that this goes along with changes in performance. These findings bear important implications for future competencies assessments.

Authors

• Vanessa Pupkowski, University of Duisburg-Essen

• Elke Sumfleth, University Duisburg - Essen

• Maik Walpuski, University of Duisburg-Essen