9. klassi õpilaste huvi eri kontekstis esitatud loodusteaduslike teemade õppimise vastu ja motivatsioon õppida loodusteadusi

Abstract

a a Tartu Ülikooli loodusteadusliku hariduse keskus AnnotatsioonViimaste aastate uuringute tulemused näitavad, et õpilased hindavad üha enam loodus ainete õppimise vajalikkust, kuid endiselt on teemavaldkondi, mille õppi-mise vastu nad huvi ei tunne, kuna need on vähe seotud nende igapäevaelu või sotsiaalse keskkonnaga. Vähe on aga uuritud seda, kuidas loodusteaduslike õppeainete sisu esitamine eri kontekstis mõjutab õpilaste huvi õppekavaga kindlaks määratud teemade õppimise vastu. Artikli põhieesmärk on välja selgitada, millises kontekstis esitatud loodusteaduslike teemade õppimisest on 9. klassi õpilased (N = 848) huvitatud ning milline on õpilaste motivatsioon õppida loodusteaduslikke õppeaineid. Andmeid koguti katsetatud ja valideeritud kompleksinstrumendiga. Andmete analüüsimiseks kasutati nii peakomponentide kui ka klasteranalüüsi meetodeid. Leitud dimensioonid kirjeldavad õpilaste huvide kontekstuaalset iseloomu. K-keskmiste klasteranalüüsi tulemusena eristus nelja loodusaine sees kolm (kokku 12) õpilaste motivatsiooniprofiili, mis võimaldavad kirjeldada põhikooli lõpuklasside õpilaste huvisid ja motivatsioonilisi suundumusi loodusainete õppimisel. Õpilaste motivatsioon õppida loodusaineid on üldiselt suur ja seda nii tüdrukutel kui ka poistel.

A Study Comparing Intrinsic Motivation and Opinions on Learning Science (Grades 6) and Taking the International PISA Test (Grade 9)

“…For example, if the science themes are presented in a social and personal context (e.g., natural phenomena, effects of poisonous plants on the body), as compared with chemistry and physics-related themes, presented in an abstract format (e.g., atoms and molecules as the smallest particles of matter, electric circuits), then students' relevance is shown to be higher towards personal and social context-related themes, especially in grade 6 compared with grade 9. This result is supported by previous research which indicates that students wish to learn about the themes when they perceive them as personally relevant and also when the science content is connected with their experiences in everyday life situations, or with a social context [38,48,52]. This suggests that one way to enhance the relevance of science learning for students' in schools is by offering a variety of real-life examples in science learning, i.e., that students see the value of doing something [20].…”

“…Value/usefulness in the SDT framework is related with the idea that people internalize and become self-regulating with respect to activities that they experience as useful or valuable for themselves [23]. Research indicates that when the science instruction is focused on usefulness and meaningfulness, students are more highly motivated and interested in learning science topics [26,[36][37][38].…”

“…Both have been proposed as attributes that can make science learning relevant. Studies, in fact, have shown that when the science content is presented in everyday, or social, contexts, it increases students' relevance towards science learning [38,48].…”

“…The instrument was compiled based on instruments from several studies [37,51,52] and involved 36 science sub-themes (content areas as per the curriculum) related to lower secondary school science. These themes were presented in 3 different contexts-personal, social and science curriculum content-related (for a more detailed description, see [38]). Themes were selected based on the compulsory learning content indicated in the National curriculum for basic schools [53].…”

GRADE 6 & 9 STUDENT AND TEACHER PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES IN RELATION TO STUDENT PERCEIVED INTEREST/ENJOYMENT TOWARDS SCIENCE LEARNING

“…In teacher-centred approaches, both interest and student learning are shown to be limited, whereas for student-centred approaches, where students actively participate in the learning process (e.g., inquiry-based learning, hands-on activities) these have been shown to positively promote student interest (e.g., Potvin et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2015). Furthermore, research studies have shown that student interest towards science learning is influenced by the manner in which science learning is initiated and presented to students (Hasni & Potvin, 2015;Häussler & Hoffmann, 2000;Teppo et al, 2017).…”