The relationship that exists between students and science and technology (S&T) is a complex and important one. If it is positive, then social, economic and environmental consequences are to be expected. Yet, many problems of interest/ motivation/attitude (I/M/A) towards S&T have been recorded. A lot of research has been conducted on this topic and a certain number of syntheses have been proposed, but very few of them have followed sufficiently systematic procedures. In this article, we offer a synthetic and systematic description of 228 research articles that were published between 2000 and 2012 and indexed in the ERIC database under I/M/A for S&T at K-12 levels. We focus on the origin of these articles, on the constructs they use and define, on the instruments, and finally on the results they provide, whether correlative or causal. Conclusions and recommendations for future research and interventions are formulated.Keywords: science education; technology education; literature review; interest; motivation; attitude; K-12 Introduction A worldwide concernThe connection that exists between students and science and technology (hereafter designated as 'S&T') through the use of such concepts as 'interest', 'motivation' or 'attitude' (hereafter designated as 'interest/motivation/attitude', 'I/M/A') is an important current and ongoing preoccupation and has been a major concern for researchers and educational systems around the world for a very long time (Osborne, Simon, & Collins, 2003). Although students' I/M/A toward S&T is sometimes judged to be generally positive (Awan, Sarwar, Naz, & Noreen, 2011) -though not without some considerable international differences (p. 43), boy/girl differences and subject-related differences (Schreiner & Sjoberg, 2004) -the idea that interest in S&T is declining has now been widely accepted. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2006, 2008), S&T professions are less attractive and the share of S&T students in higher education has been decreasing considerably. In 2003, Osborne et al. wrote: 'In […] the past decade, the problem has become even more acute ' (2003, p. 1050 This is an Open Access article. Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. , 2014 Vol. 50, No. 1, 85-129, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2014 interest-evaluating items (8) in its international testing initiative (Krapp & Prenzel, 2011). Studies in Science EducationStudents and school science & technology: a relationship under tension and a need for research-based synthetic knowledge According to Krapp and Prenzel (2011), besides developmental or identity-based approaches, it is possible to tackle the problem of interest in S&T by supposing that its development depends 'on the quality and type of instruction ' (p. 35) that is given to students in schools. But ...

Science education studies have revealed that students often have misconceptions about how nature works, but what happens to misconceptions after a conceptual change remains poorly understood. Are misconceptions rejected and replaced by scientific conceptions, or are they still present in students' minds, coexisting with newly acquired scientific conceptions? In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain activation between novices and experts in science when they evaluate the correctness of simple electric circuits. Results show that experts, more than novices, activate brain areas involved in inhibition when they evaluate electric circuits in which a bulb lights up, even though there is only one wire connecting it to the battery. These findings suggest that experts may still have a misconception encoded in the neural networks of their brains that must be inhibited in order to answer scientifically.

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Interest in school science and technology (S&T) remains an important issue as it is linked to achievement and the intention to pursue studies or careers in S&T. Around the world, a number of studies have shown that interest in S&T declines with school years. However, some divergences from the general trend have been demonstrated in certain contexts, sub-periods, or for closely related subconstructs. We administered 2,628 questionnaires to students in grades 5 through 11 in the province of Québec, Canada. The questionnaire explored many factors (including out-of-school and school-related preferences, difficulty, importance, frequency), allowing us to track these closely related variables for a seven-year period. Among others, the results show a general degradation inschool S&T factors but an improvement in out-of-school S&T variables and of interest in S&T studies and careers. S&T is perceived as increasingly difficult and valuable compared with all other subject matters taken one-on-one. Some shorter fluctuations are analysed and interpreted in comparison with the evolution of certain teaching practices.

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ABSTRACT. Recent research efforts have argued for the persistence of some of students' frequent scientific misconceptions, even after correct answers are produced. Some of these studies, based on the analysis of reaction times, have recorded latencies for counterintuitive or incongruent stimuli compared to intuitive or congruent ones. The proposed interpretations were that prior knowledge survives learning and still coexists with new closer-to-scientific knowledge, producing conflicts that delay correct answers. But these conclusions are based on the assumption that stimuli from different conditions only differ in the presence/absence of interfering misconceptions, which is sometimes, in our opinion, a rather fragile claim. Thus, we have designed a task in which it is possible to test different levels of interference and not only its effects in contrast to another condition. Then, we have used it to see if different intensities of interference produce different levels of conflict. The task tested the persistence of the misconception that "heavy objects sink more than lighter ones". One hundred twenty-eight 14-to 15-year-olds were asked to tell which of the 2 balls presented (3 different materials and 3 different sizes) would "sink more" than the other. Analysis verified the presence of latencies and negative priming. For the most part, results show that the intensity of interference does produce corresponding latencies, which suggests greater conflict and therefore supports the hypothesis of persistence and coexistence of conceptions, even after correct answers are produced, and beyond other plausible effects due to the used stimuli. Prescriptions for theory and teaching are proposed.

While the majority of published research on conceptual change has focused on how misconceptions can be abandoned or modified, some recent research findings support the hypothesis that acquired scientific knowledge does not necessarily erase or alter initial non-scientific knowledge but rather coexists with it. In keeping with this "coexistence claim," this article presents an analysis of scientific understanding in four groups of individuals with varying degrees of expertise (preschoolers, elementary students, secondary students, and science teachers) using a cognitive task on buoyancy. This task allowed us to determine the prevalence of certain conceptions and the interference caused by two possible conceptual distractors with regard to producing accurate answers. Results describe the progression of the desired (scientific) conception with age/expertise as well as the evolution or regression of the statuses of two misconceptions. Results also show that misconceptions continue to interfere with performance even when there is a higher degree of scientific expertise, and that patterns of such interference can be studied. In keeping with these conclusions, we argue for the use of a model of conceptual learning called "conceptual prevalence."

In this article we propose some adjustments to the models of conceptual change that belong to the "classical" tradition for the purpose of improving the efficiency of science teaching that aims at producing such "conceptual changes".