PERC 2022 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Uncovering Students’ Types of Interest in Physics |
|---|---|
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
| Abstract: | Given the central importance of increasing high school students' interest as a goal of physics education in international science standards, empirical support for the theoretical description of interest is essential. Previous studies about students' interest in physics focused on gender issues, which may increase the perception of gender differences. Furthermore, modern physics contents, such as particle physics, were not included. Thus, our research project examines what matters when increasing students' interest in classical and modern physics contents. We investigate which aspects of physics students are interested in and whether they can be categorised into different interest types based on their interest profiles and physics-related self-concept. We conducted a cross-cohort study with German-speaking students aged 14 to 16 years (N = 1214). A mixed Rasch analysis revealed that most students are only interested in classical and modern physics contents when set in a context related to one's own body (e.g., medical diagnostics), socio-scientific issues (e.g., smuggled arms), or existential questions of humankind (e.g., big bang theory). Knowing high school students' types of interest is important for educators trying to increase their students' interests. In particular, they can match the design of their learning activities with students' different types of interest. This will enable educators to address students of all genders and with different physics-related self-concepts, and thereby increase their interest. |
| Session Time: | Poster Session 2 |
| Poster Number: | II-2 |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Sarah Zoechling CERN & University of Vienna Geneva 23 (CH), Non U.S. 1211 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Martin Hopf (he/him), University of Vienna Julia Woithe (she/her), CERN Sascha Schmeling (he/him), CERN |
