Interest and Emotions in Science Education

Abstract

Interest is an important affective variable that has been found to be associated with focused attention, higher cognitive functioning, and learning, which makes it an important variable for learning in science. In research on interest and learning this interplay is almost always seen in a unidirectional way where interest is a facilitator for learning. The aim of this chapter is to challenge this unidirectional view in on the role of interest -with special emphasis on feelings -in learning science. We do that by reversing the direction and investigate if learning science can be a facilitator for developing interest. We start with a theoretical outline of interest and feelings connected to this. This will be put in to a context of students' work in upper secondary biology education for an empirical approach to this interplay. The empirical work will provide arguments for the theoretical outline but also qualify the final discussion on the role of interest and the attached emotions, feelings and moods in science education in general on theoretical and practical level and the correspondence with leaning science.

Emociones al enseñar Biología y enseñar a argumentar en Biología

“…Negar esta relación, posiblemente ubica a los autores en una perspectiva utilitarista y práctica del conocimiento científico y tecnológico (Rodrigues da Silva et al, 2011). Al respecto, Petersen & Dohn (2017), manifiestan que la emociones, y si se quiere, el estado emocional (Damasio, 2010), afectan considerablemente el interés que tanto docentes como estudiantes puedan manifestar frente a una actividad académica y, por lo tanto, su compromiso y la obtención de buenos resultados (Pekrun & Perry, 2014). De igual manera, las emociones están estrechamente vinculadas con la salud y el bienestar mental del sujeto, por ello, independientemente de la relevancia funcional que se le pueda asignar en relación con una demanda cognitiva, deben asumirse como propósito central en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje.…”

“…Francisco javier ruiz, José mauricio rodas resolución de problemas relacionados con su profesión (Bellocchi et al, 2013;Hufnagel, 2015Hufnagel, , 2017Landazábal y Gamboa, 2018;Petersen & Dohn, 2017).…”

Questioning the prevailing narrative about elementary science teachers: An analysis of the experiences of science teacher enthusiasts

“…Additionally, as novices and experienced teachers position themselves and develop their identities within particular contexts, emotions play an essential role (Rivera-Maulucci, 2013). Currently, the majority of literature related to emotions in schools centers on student emotions rather than teacher emotions (Petersen & Dohn, 2017). There is an emerging body of research focused on BRADBURY AND WILSON | 427 measuring teacher emotions during the act of teaching (e.g., Tobin, King, Henderson, Bellocchi, & Ritchie, 2016), but the findings may be hindered by the emotions that teachers feel comfortable displaying.…”