Effect of a Stem-Oriented Course on Students’ Marine Science Motivation, Interest, and Achievements

Abstract

In recent years, marine science education has received increasing attention around the world, but the integration of STEM education into the marine curriculum is rarely applied to lower-secondary schools. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of a teaching module on the topic of marine science, developed using a STEM approach, on the motivation, interest, and marine science achievements. The 9th-grade students from two classes in a Taiwanese public school were recruited in this study. Students in the experimental group were taught using the STEM course. Students in the control group were taught in a traditional didactic teaching course. Pre- and post-tests were used to determine marine science achievement, interest, and learning motivation. The experimental group gained significantly superior scores in three out of four dimensions towards motivation and two out of three dimensions interest. A significant difference was found between the experimental group and the control group, with the former showing increased marine science achievement over the latter in higher-order thinking; however, no significant differences were with respect to cognition. It is concluded that involving STEM-based implementations in teaching, the subject “Marine Science” increases the success rate and attitude towards the subject of students. Keywords: learning interest, learning motivation, marine science achievement, STEM

Exploring the role of motivation in STEM education: A systematic review

“…Among the studies examined, only one study (1.4%, e.g., Shurygin et al, 2023) used an experimental method to examine motivation in STEM education. students' motivation regarding STEM (e.g., Gok, 2021;Kuo et al, 2019;Stringer et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2018), the effects of instructional activities on participants' motivation on STEM (Asigigan & Samur, 2021;Chittum et al, 2017;Funa et al, 2021;Higde & Aktamis, 2022;Julià & Antolí, 2019;LaForce et al, 2017;Tsai et al, 2021), investigating the relationships between STEM motivation and related factors (Fong et al, 2021;Gladstone et al, 2022;Hermans et al, 2022;Jeong et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2020;Vennix et al, 2022). Regarding student-level factors, for example, a study by Dokme et al (2022) researched the motivation of female preservice teachers toward their STEM fields.…”

“…Regarding student-level factors, for example, a study by Dokme et al (2022) researched the motivation of female preservice teachers toward their STEM fields. Regarding instructional activities, the study by Tsai et al (2021) examined the effects of a teaching module about marine science on students' motivation, interest, and achievements in marine science. In the studies that investigated the relationships between STEM motivation and related factors, for example, Fong et al (2021) examined high school students' cross-domain motivation patterns regarding expectancy beliefs and values in mathematics and science in the United States.…”

Effect of design‐based learning on achievement in K‐12 education: A meta‐analysis

“…To code the moderator variables, we used the following criteria for each moderator: publication year (the year that the study is published), country (where the study is conducted), discipline linked to achievement (science, mathematics, social science, technology, STEM, language), measurement type (multiple choice, open ended, mixed), school level (kindergarten [K], elementary school [ES], middle school [MS], high school [HS]), duration of the intervention (number of weeks during the intervention‐ this moderator did not include weeks reported for pre‐ and post‐tests), control school (same: study was implemented in the same school and different classes were selected, different: study was implemented in different schools) and experimental design (pretest‐posttest, posttest only), assignment of participants into control and treatment groups (random, non‐random), and content support related to design product (support provided [e.g. providing content knowledge related to oceans before creating ocean vacuum cleaner in Tsai et al, 2021], no content support [e.g. Google SketchUp's impact on student learning outcomes in Chou et al, 2017]).…”

The Feasibility and Effectiveness of Life Science in Stem Practical Learning Environment

“…In the 21st century society, this importance is even more significant (Salmi et al, 2021;Struyf et al, 2019). STEM education emphasizes knowledge application and practical experience to provide participants with multi-dimensional learning, such as knowledge, communication, skills, coordination, thinking, creation, design, and cooperation (Bybee, 2010;Tsai et al, 2021). Try to link schools, communities, work, and enterprises (Tsupros et al, 2009;Mizell & Brown, 2016) to integrate academic concepts and real-world courses.…”