Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education
Interest research offers different hypotheses about the association between interest and learning outcomes. The standard hypothesis proposes that interest predicts learning outcomes: people acquire new knowledge about a topic they find interesting. The affective by-product hypothesis assumes that l...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
EARLI
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Frontline Learning Research |
| Online Access: | https://journals.sfu.ca/flr/index.php/journal/article/view/461 |
| _version_ | 1818014886091816960 |
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| author | Erkka Laine Marjaana Veermans Andreas Gegenfurtner Koen Veermans |
| author_facet | Erkka Laine Marjaana Veermans Andreas Gegenfurtner Koen Veermans |
| author_sort | Erkka Laine |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Interest research offers different hypotheses about the association between interest and learning outcomes. The standard hypothesis proposes that interest predicts learning outcomes: people acquire new knowledge about a topic they find interesting. The affective by-product hypothesis assumes that learning predicts interest: by learning something, people develop an interest in this topic. Finally, the reciprocal hypothesis states that interest and learning covary. This longitudinal study aimed to test the predictive validity of these three hypotheses in the context of secondary school STEM education. The participants were 104 Finnish 7th grade students aged 12-14. Data were collected at three times during the school year through questionnaires and grade evaluations in mathematics and biology. A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach was used to determine the relationships between interest and course grades across the three measurement points: at the beginning of the autumn semester, at the beginning of the spring semester, and after the spring semester at the end of the school year. The results differed between the autumn and spring semesters: During the autumn semester, students’ interest predicted their grades, whereas during the spring semester, grades predicted their interest. These findings indicate that the relationships between students’ individual interest towards science and mathematics with learning vary. As a practical implication, more focus should be put on when and what type of performance feedback is given to students with differing interest profiles.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T06:49:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c9a2fb448f8e4bc1a6cc7da2f1ef4ccf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2295-3159 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T06:49:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | EARLI |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontline Learning Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-c9a2fb448f8e4bc1a6cc7da2f1ef4ccf2022-12-22T02:07:04ZengEARLIFrontline Learning Research2295-31592020-04-018210.14786/flr.v8i2.461Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM educationErkka Laine0Marjaana Veermans1Andreas Gegenfurtner2Koen Veermans3University of TurkuUniversity of TurkuDeggendorf Institute of TechnologyUniversity of Turku Interest research offers different hypotheses about the association between interest and learning outcomes. The standard hypothesis proposes that interest predicts learning outcomes: people acquire new knowledge about a topic they find interesting. The affective by-product hypothesis assumes that learning predicts interest: by learning something, people develop an interest in this topic. Finally, the reciprocal hypothesis states that interest and learning covary. This longitudinal study aimed to test the predictive validity of these three hypotheses in the context of secondary school STEM education. The participants were 104 Finnish 7th grade students aged 12-14. Data were collected at three times during the school year through questionnaires and grade evaluations in mathematics and biology. A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach was used to determine the relationships between interest and course grades across the three measurement points: at the beginning of the autumn semester, at the beginning of the spring semester, and after the spring semester at the end of the school year. The results differed between the autumn and spring semesters: During the autumn semester, students’ interest predicted their grades, whereas during the spring semester, grades predicted their interest. These findings indicate that the relationships between students’ individual interest towards science and mathematics with learning vary. As a practical implication, more focus should be put on when and what type of performance feedback is given to students with differing interest profiles. https://journals.sfu.ca/flr/index.php/journal/article/view/461 |
| spellingShingle | Erkka Laine Marjaana Veermans Andreas Gegenfurtner Koen Veermans Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education Frontline Learning Research |
| title | Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education |
| title_full | Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education |
| title_fullStr | Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education |
| title_full_unstemmed | Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education |
| title_short | Individual interest and learning in secondary school STEM education |
| title_sort | individual interest and learning in secondary school stem education |
| url | https://journals.sfu.ca/flr/index.php/journal/article/view/461 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT erkkalaine individualinterestandlearninginsecondaryschoolstemeducation AT marjaanaveermans individualinterestandlearninginsecondaryschoolstemeducation AT andreasgegenfurtner individualinterestandlearninginsecondaryschoolstemeducation AT koenveermans individualinterestandlearninginsecondaryschoolstemeducation |