Interest, motivation and attitude towards science and technology at K-12 levels: a systematic review of 12 years of educational research

Abstract

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 ...

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“…Tätä on luonnontiedeopetuksen kontekstissa käsitteellistetty relevanssin käsitteen kautta. Tämä keskustelu juontuu län-simaissa yleisestä huolenaiheesta: oppilaiden kiinnostus tiedeaineisiin on vähäistä, tiedeaineita ei nähdä hyödyllisinä tulevan ammatin kannalta, eikä tiedeaineita aina nähdä oleellisina elämäntapamme kannalta (Potvin & Hasni, 2014;Sjøberg & Schreiner, 2010). On vahvoja viitteitä siitä, että oppilaiden kiinnostus ja asenteet luonnontieteitä kohtaan saattavat heikentyä koulunkäynnin myötä -on jopa esitetty, että nimenomaan koulutiede on eräs syy tähän negatiiviseen suhtautumiseen (Potvin & Hasni, 2014).…”

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“…On vahvoja viitteitä siitä, että oppilaiden kiinnostus ja asenteet luonnontieteitä kohtaan saattavat heikentyä koulunkäynnin myötä -on jopa esitetty, että nimenomaan koulutiede on eräs syy tähän negatiiviseen suhtautumiseen (Potvin & Hasni, 2014). Näyttää siltä, että muun muassa tyypilliset ja perinteiset kontekstit, joissa tiedettä koulussa opetetaan, ovat epäkiinnostavia ja irrelevantteja oppilaille -näin on myös Suomessa (Lavonen, Byman, Juuti, Meisalo & Uitto, 2005;Potvin & Hasni, 2014;Sjøberg & Schreiner, 2010). Niinpä onkin vaarana, että tarpeeksi moni oppilas ei valitse tiedeaineita eivätkä tavoitteet tieteen ja teknologian ammattilasten koulutuksesta toteudu (vrt.…”