Career-oriented performance tasks: Effects on students’ interest in Chemistry

A polarity profile was constructed to compare the pretest ratings of COPT and TTA classes on the Chemistry Attitude and Experiences Questionnaire (CAEQ) as shown in Figure 2. At most bipolar adjectives, the COPT and TTA classes had the same perception about each domain on interest in Chemistry. However, there were variations in some visible points in the graph such as how students view chemists: athletic/unfit and socially aware/socially unaware; how students view Chemistry websites: interesting/boring; and how students view chemistry jobs: varied/repetitive and interesting/boring.

Figure 2. Polarity Profile of Chemistry Attitude and Experiences Questionnaire Pretest

A two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test for two independent samples was also conducted to compare the pretest ratings of COPT and TTA classes on the Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire (CAEQ) as shown in Table 3. The results show that there was no significant difference in the CAEQ pretest ratings of the COPT class with mean rank of 38.97 and the TTA class with mean rank of 38.00; U = 703.0, p = 0.847. These results suggest that the COPT and the TTA students’ interest in Chemistry were comparable prior to intervention.

Table 3. Independent Samples Mann-Whitney U Test on Interest in Chemistry Pretest

	N	Mean Rank	Sum of Ranks	U	p
COPT	39	38.97	1520	703.0	0.847
TTA	37	38.00	1406	703.0	0.847
Total	76

A polarity profile was constructed to compare the posttest ratings of COPT and TTA students on the Chemistry Attitude and Experiences Questionnaire (CAEQ) as shown in Figure 3. The polarity profile shows similarity with that of the pretest although posttest results show more consistency or uniformity between groups. At most bipolar adjectives, the COPT and TTA classes have the same perception or view about each domain on interest in Chemistry except for some visible points in the graph such as how students view chemists: flexible in their ideas/fixed in their ideas, care about the effects of their attitudes/only care about their results and imaginative/unimaginative; how students view talking to their friends about Chemistry: fascinating/dull; and how students view science fiction movies: exciting/tedious.

fig3

Figure 3. Polarity Profile on Chemistry Attitude and Experiences Questionnaire Posttest

Comparing the pretest and posttest polarity profiles of COPT and TTA classes, it is noticeable that some points increased and, some points decreased, whereas, others remain the same. Table 4 summarizes these observations.

Table 4. Summary of scores of CAEQ Item Numbers which increased, decreased or remained the same in the Pretest and Posttest Polarity Profile

Group	Increased		Decreased		Remained the same
COPT only	4, 10, 11	3	None	0	5	1
TTA only	none	0	4, 5	2	11	1
Both COPT and TTA	2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 15, 17, 21	8	1, 7, 13, 14, 16, 20	6	12, 18, 19	3

Based on Table 4, it is noticeable that there were more items in which changes were observed for both classes, regardless whether the said change involved an increase or decrease in the mean rating than in either COPT or TTA alone. This implies that the COPT and the TTA classes were comparable even after the intervention.

However, there it is noticeable that there is an increase in the rating for items 4, 10 and 11. These items show how students view chemist: flexible in their ideas/fixed in their ideas; how students view chemistry research: improves quality of life/decrease quality of life and solves problems/creates problem. This shows that students exposed to COPT changed their perception in favor of the positive impact of chemist and chemistry research to the society. The COPT exposed students to different tasks of chemists to society. This could be the reason for the increase in the positive perception of students toward chemist and chemistry research.

A two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test for two independent samples was also conducted to compare the posttest ratings of COPT and TTA classes on the Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire (CAEQ) as shown in Table 5. The results show that there was no significant difference in the CAEQ posttest ratings of the COPT class with mean rank of 41.19 and the TTA class with mean rank of 34.89; U = 585.0, p = 0.210. These results suggest that the COPT and the TTA students’ interest in Chemistry were comparable even after intervention.

Table 5. Independent Samples Mann-Whitney U Test on Interest in Chemistry Posttest

	N	Mean Rank	Sum of Ranks	U	p
COPT	37	41.19	1524	585.0	0.210
TTA	38	34.89	1326	585.0	0.210
Total	75

In the implementation of COPT, performance tasks were not done inside the classroom. They were given to the students when a topic commences, then outputs were expected to be submitted at the end of the lesson schedule. From informal interviews with the students, it was found out that not all members of the group participated in accomplishing the tasks. Moreover, the study was done during the pre-final grading period so according to feedback from students, they rushed doing their COPT outputs since they were also busy accomplishing requirements in other subjects. The nonparticipation of all group members as well as hurriedly doing the COPT could have affected interest in Chemistry among students.

In addition, as observed by another Chemistry faculty, the eagerness among students in participating in classroom activities in the COPT class decreased. The decrease in the eagerness to participate in classroom activities among students could be another factor that affected the enhancement of interest in Chemistry among students. On a study done by Sesen and Tarhan (2010) about teaching acids and bases based on constructivist approach, they revealed that active participation among students positively enhanced achievement and attitude toward Chemistry. Similarly, Pardhan (2004) found out from his study that active engagement enhanced interest in Physics among students. Moreover, Paris, Yambor and Packard (1998) showed that active participation in hands-on activities in Biology positively enhanced interest in the subject. Another possible explanation for the non-significant result also points to the limitation in the time of exposure to the intervention. To improve the implementation of COPT, the length of time spent in actual implementation should be made for at least two grading periods. Furthermore, COPT outputs should be done inside the classroom so that the teacher can check if everyone is doing their part. Similarly, classroom activities should be made more interesting, engaging and challenging so as to sustain interest among students.

Also, socioeconomic status of students might have played an important role in the study. Denga (1990) found out that career interests among adolescents are strongly influenced by socioeconomic inheritance. In other words, adolescents tend to choose courses which are aligned to what their parents or family is doing to earn a living. According to the guidance and placement office of the college, most students in the college belong to the middle and high socioeconomic status and that most of their parents’ primary source of income is business. This could be another explanation to the receptive behavior of students against the career-oriented instruction which is geared to Chemistry careers.