ERIC Number: EJ1110844
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Sep
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8326
EISSN: N/A
Why Do Secondary School Students Lose Their Interest in Science? Or Does It Never Emerge? A Possible and Overlooked Explanation
Anderhag, Per; Wickman, Per-Olof; Bergqvist, Kerstin; Jakobson, Britt; Hamza, Karim Mikael; Säljö, Roger
Science Education, v100 n5 p791-813 Sep 2016
In this paper, we review research on how students' interest in science changes through the primary to secondary school transition. In the literature, the findings generally show that primary students enjoy science but come to lose interest during secondary school. As this claim is based mainly on interview and questionnaire data, that is on secondary reports from students about their interest in science, these results are reexamined through our own extensive material from primary and secondary school on how interest is constituted through classroom discourse. Our results suggest the possibility that primary students do not lose their interest in science, but rather that an interest in science is never constituted. The overview indicates that studies relying on interviews and questionnaires make it difficult to ascertain what the actual object of interest is when students act in the science classroom. The possibility suggested should, if valid, have consequences for science education and be worthy of further examination.
Descriptors: Student Attitudes, Student Interests, Secondary School Students, Elementary School Students, Interviews, Questionnaires, Science Interests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A