A strategy for incorporating students’ interests into the high‐school science classroom

Abstract

Many students feel the curriculum is detached from their lives and interests. Indeed, about half the questions asked by high school biology students are not addressed by the curriculum. This study presents a strategy to incorporate students’ curiosity questions into the curriculum as a way to reduce the disparity between students’ interests and curricular requirements. We examined how five high school teachers incorporate their students' questions into their teaching and students’ perspectives on and experience of learning this way. In all classes, students were invited to anonymously write down their questions on the next topics to be learned and hand them in to the teacher, who mapped the questions into the required curriculum and planned teaching to address these questions. Teachers were given a freehand concerning how the questions were to be answered. This resulted in five different pedagogies ranging from teacher‐centered to students‐centered and different levels to which students’ voices affected the lesson content. There was no commonality between the level of adaptation of teaching content to include students’ voice and the choice of student‐centered pedagogies. The three basic needs identified by the Self‐Determination Theory were addressed, hence potentially increasing students’ intrinsic motivation. It enabled almost all the students to ask questions and influence lesson content; in some cases, an unintended outcome of improving teacher–student and peer to peer relations was observed. We suggest a practical, accessible, and flexible way to integrate students’ existing interests in science with disciplinary science learning, governed by the respect for their autonomy and needs. If the curriculum does not provide for personal queries, teachers can make this possible by incorporating students’ questions into the curriculum and negotiating a shared shadow curriculum. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 949–978, 2015.

First-hand Experience with Engineering Design and Career Interest in Engineering: An Informal STEM Education Case Study

“…Thus, in line with the study of Puvirajah et al (2012), giving students the same level of authority, without dominance by one based on greater experience or knowledge, enhanced student engagement in the robotics activities. In turn, such engagement allowed individuals to initiate and regulate their actions; namely, they became autonomous (Deci et al, 1991;Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015).…”

“…As a result, this case is aligned with Puvirajah, Verma, and Webb' s (2012) study in terms of problematizing content as provided in informal learning settings. Moreover, problematizing content seems to allow individuals to become competent as they are dealing with challenges and problems unexpectedly (Deci et al, 1991;Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015).…”

“…Individuals have the ability to initiate and regulate their own actions. Intrinsic motivation can increase when individuals are held accountable for their task (Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015). (2) Competence indicates the ability of individuals to perform basic actions.…”

A Systematic Review: The Next Generation Science Standards and the Increased Cultural Diversity

“…This model is strongly related to students' intrinsic motivation (Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015). The scholars suggest that pupils should have the right to vocalize their preferences regarding "the form, content, and aims of their schooling" (Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015, p. 951).…”

“…Linking this insight of NGSS, one should state that language skills are necessary to fulfill the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015). Consequently, one supposes that cultural sensitivity should include well-developed communicative skills with the students of different cultural, social, economic, and religious backgrounds.…”