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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 2, Article 9 (Dec., 2015) |
Totally 49 valid responses of instruments were received from the participants. For each learning experience mentioned in an instrument, the figures, sentences, paragraphs were simplified into a short phrase that was regarded as one item. All the items were grouped and the frequency was counted. The result is shown in table 2.
Table 2. Analysis of situational interests among main topics
Interesting activity / Content Frequency
Heat & gases
Specific heat capacity
1
Mechanics
Monkey and hunter experiment
5
Investigative study (IS)
15
Equations of uniformly accelerating motion
1
Apparent weight changes in a lift
1
Wave
Plane transmission grating
3
Observing light spectrum
2
Reflection and refraction of light
1
Electromagnetic wave song
3
Interference of sound
1
Electricity & magnetism
Van de Graff generator
1
Connecting circuit
2
Floating ring in electromagnetic induction
2
Super conductor
2
Tesla coil
1
Search coil
1
Radioactivity & Nuclear energy
Radioactivity
2
Astronomy
Celestial sphere & simulation (stellarium)
5
Star gazing activity
2
Astronomy (write one word only)
1
Not specified to particular topics
Total
(Movies, TV films or comic related to physics)27
(12 out of 27)There are totally 79 items provided that each respondent could present one to three items. Individuals never repeated the same item in one instrument so a base total of 49 can be used. The items with higher frequency means such learning experience is more popular in triggering students’ situational interest. The most popular one is IS as the frequency is 15 out of 49. It implies that IS is highly popular in triggering students’ situational interest.
Five interviews (M1 to M5) were conducted, of which two are with students of a high interest, two with a moderate interest and one with a low interest in physics. Table 3 shows their perceived interest levels and situational interests mentioned in the instruments.
Table 3. Interviewees’ situational interests and interest level
Students’ code Situational interests
Responded interest level
(Highest: 10, lowest: 1)M1
- Investigative study
- Connecting circuit
- Reading physics books
- See demonstration
8-9
M2
- Floating ring in electromagnetic induction
- Celestial sphere & simulation (stellarium)
9
M3
- Monkey and hunter experiment
- Light spectrum
6-7
M4
- Investigative study
- Electromagnetic wave song
- Comic (Konan), TV film (Raymond Lam)
6
M5
- Specific heat capacity
- Interference of sound
2-3
Reasons for many students to be interested in IS
Quite a significant portion of students got in-depth memory and a positive feeling on IS when they were writing the research instrument. The progress of IS would be briefly described before going into discussion on how IS stimulated students’ interest.
The students were asked to do a short project after the first term examination in Form 4, which was so-called the first IS. Students worked in groups to design and construct two setups to demonstrate one uniform motion and one uniformly accelerating motion. A technique of analyzing the filmed motion videos into motion graph, which is called motion video analysis (MVA) by using a free software Tracker developed by Open Source Physics Project, was taught by the researcher. The software enables dynamic modeling of center-of-mass (Brown& Anne, 2009). Afterwards, students carried out their experiment. Their experimental result was analyzed by MVA to find out the values of velocity or acceleration of the motions. Finally, they conducted a presentation to the whole class to share their work and be questioned by peers. IS was scored as daily marks for the school’s internal examination mark.
After a year, when they were in form 5, the second IS “projectile motion” was assigned to investigate the relationship between two parameters involved in the motion. They had to design a workable setup to investigate their proposed task and they were encouraged to use MVA during the progress. After the investigation, they needed to submit a full written report and the assessment would be scored for school examination, as well as SBA for public examination.
Student M1 is highly positive towards IS,
“… In such a tight curriculum, a flexible time could be provided for me to collaborate with group members to design an experiment and implement it. I found it interesting. It is not just directly delivered by teacher. I like to have freedom to exert… It was enjoyable when brainstorming the design of experiment.”
“…During daily lessons, the curriculum was tight, so the teacher delivered the content in a rush. If such chance was absent, I thought that the meaning of learning was lost… It means to learn something new, and have freedom to deliberate and to prove something. It is not just revision and then sits in the examination, although currently this is the fact.”He understood that academic performance is very important and revision for examination should be of concern. He also understood that the teaching time under the NSS curriculum is tight. However, he recognized that IS was worth because he perceived it as “the meaning of learning” (學習的意義), which is the autonomy and room to exert and design an experimental setup. The adequate arena for exceling his intended tasks provided the feeling of autonomy, and this feeling motivated his learning (Krapp., 2002a).
Student M4, who came from the same elite class as student M1, wrote IS as one of his interesting learning experiences. He described in detail during the interview,
“… I can use software to accurately analyze something familiar and learned in lessons. The concepts would remain theoretical on calculation unless I personally experience the analysis of an experiment to verify what I learned in lessons. This is quite interesting.”
“(I like) the practical part that I did the work by myself and minimized the error.”He was satisfied with manipulating MVA to verify the concepts learned in lessons. Similar to student M1, he got the feeling of autonomy such that he was highly engaged in analyzing motions. He did hands-on work by himself on minimizing the error of the setup in order to obtain more accurate results, which is coherent to what he expected from his prior knowledge.
Both students M1 and M4 appreciated the feeling of autonomy and engagement in IS. Student M4 appreciated his engagement on practically experimenting theory. They appreciated the engagement in practical work with adequate autonomy. Student M3 from another class of a mixed ability, was asked about his perception on IS,
“The two projects involved fast motions which were difficult to measure. Some technology could help me to find the velocity and their relationship (kinematics). The software helped me to plot a graph which can clearly figure out their relationship. It is unlike the rigid one from textbook. After talking (by teacher) about it I could not understand. But after doing (using MVA), I set the distance and locate the motion point by point, I could understand how the graph was established.”
When he learned motion graphs in normal lessons, he did not understand thoroughly. Through learning in IS, he was engaged to study motions through MVA. The software guided him to locate the motion of point mass by incrementing each frame, showing detailed movement of an object across same time intervals. Motion graphs were rendered instantaneously when he was analyzing the motion. He was able to view the motion graphs of his setup simultaneously. The use of technology enabled the investigation of realistic task (Tho et al, 2015). In addition to his appreciation of the MVA technology, he got a solid understanding on how motion graphs are formulated through locating the object from the frames (Brown et al, 2009). His cognitive achievement, appreciation on technology and engagement are the elements of triggering his situational interest.
From the perspective of those who were less positive towards IS such as student M2,
“…At the beginning when we were thinking about hypothesis and theory, I contributed only a little so I got no special feeling… On the day of introducing the project, while I was still thinking about the setup, the others had already completed the plan. Consequently, I followed their plan. So, in the planning stage I did not involve much… My group members were too smart. They are elites in physics. I am weaker than them. I am less confident so I was less willing to participate.”
He found his group members even more able in planning the project. Comparatively, he became less confident in contributing to the planning. Later on he was assigned to work on finding the errors of the setups,
“I found it difficult… It is difficult to investigate the sources of error. It is challenging. Usually when doing questions and calculations, we omitted the real situations. Calculations are theoretical. In reality, there are other factors affecting the results. It is difficult to find the sources. And it is even more challenging to tackle the sources of error for improvement.”
“… My main duty was to think about the possible error. I enjoyed this work because I could think and solve the problem by myself. We cannot copy from others.”Although he was less involved in the planning stage, he was engaged in the later stages of investigating the sources of error. He realized the realistic uncertainties in the physical world through the experiments. The error in this form of analysis makes it more realistic as a scientific process than other kinds of simulations (Bryan, 2010). He enjoyed engaging in this task as it is a perceptually challenging task, and it aroused his feeling of competence that motivated his learning (Krapp, 2002). He appreciated his work on identifying errors with a sense of belonging which could not be copied from others.
Another student M5 showed much less interest in IS.
“I found the process fun. But it was not very interesting as it looked similar to the usual homework. After experiment I had to complete and submit a report. I thought it looked like completing a task as normal assignment, so it did not impress me. Perhaps it is because I am not interested in the topic (of the project).”
The process he mentioned refers to the planning and implementation of IS. His first response is positive which reflected that IS provided a positive impression. He explained that IS was not interesting at all because he thought the submission of written report looked similar to the normal assignment. He associated the feeling of report submission with the usual practice of written homework, while is not the nature of IS.
From the interviews, the participants generally show positive feelings based on autonomy and engagement. Some of them got the feeling of autonomy because the given task allowed a flexible design and manipulation. They could make their own setup, operate, modify and identify errors by themselves. During the whole process, they could be highly engaged in interacting with peers, constructing setups, measuring and observing. The high involvement with given autonomy were the main elements of maintaining students’ interest in ontogenetic transitions (Krapp, 2002).
In addition, they were taught to use MVA as an advanced technology for experimenting theory into practical. When compared with learning mechanics in theoretical basis, they got higher appreciation on the use of technology and got a better understanding on theory through the IS experience. The strengthened knowledge development also helped improve their perception of the subject. Their competence experience on subject theory and appreciation of analyzing authentic videos contributed to the feeding-relatedness in transition of motivation from external to intrinsic (Deci, 1992). Students’ understanding played a significant role in forming their perception of a subject. Student M4 found learning through IS interesting because he understood more by making an effort,
“This was a process of finding materials. For example, we thought about a track that should have less friction and workable. At the beginning, we thought about using a circular tube. However, when taping the video, the ball cannot be seen. We had to buy and know whether it was feasible after trail. During the trials I understood the properties of each kind of material. For example, the track should be flexible for bending and be fixed at a certain shape after bending. An iron bar cannot be used. I cannot learn them from textbooks. This is quite interesting.”
He tried different materials to build tracks for performing projectile motion in IS. After he tested different materials to construct the tracks for a ball, he understood how to choose the most suitable one based on their properties. Once the experiment succeeded in performing and became measurable, he found his effort was worth making to solve the problem. He gained a fruitful experience through a self-directed learning process on reflecting their learning by reviewing, revising and justifying. Every student can gain knowledge depending on how devoted they are. Students build up knowledge as a cognitive part for contributing to the value-relatedness in interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006).
Test anxietyin school-based assessment
The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) is a high-stakes public examination which is determinative of students’ admissions to tertiary studies. Students easily get nervous or anxious in HKDSE. Schunk, et al (2014) represents this type of emotion that can have negative effects on learning as test anxiety, in contrast to the positive effect generated by individual or situational interest.
IS is a part of the curriculum and assesses students by means of SBA (CDC & HKEAA, 2007). The rationale behind SBA is to assess more comprehensively on students’ attitude, practical skills and knowledge than hand-written examination papers. From the assessment scheme by HKEAA in 2014, practical work and IS contributed to 12% and 8% of the score of HKDSE respectively. When students were working in IS, they knew that their teacher was assessing them and the scores constituted a significant part of their public examination result. Although most of the interviewees responded IS was an interesting learning experience, they showed negative feelings to the SBA nature in IS.
Test anxiety could be analyzed in terms of phenomenological and behavioral responses concerning possible negative consequence of scoring low mark (Zeidner, 1998). In phenomenological aspect, it includes the cognitive thinking of worrying the consequences of failing and the emotion aroused like fear, unease or uncomfortableness. The behavioral aspect of anxiety refers to the various responses that people use to cope with their anxiety (Zeidner, 1998).
Student M1 stated clearly on why he disliked report writing in IS,“…The report will be marked and the mark is part of the final score. If it will not be marked, then it is fine for me to write the report. I have to make good formatting. Personally, I want to do it perfectly to ensure that the score is not too low. Actually I just dislike being scored, but am fine with writing the report. If the whole project would not be assessed, then I like it.”
He also mentioned one experience in practical work about his situational interest in connecting circuit,
“…After the SBA, I connected the components in whichever way I like. It was just like playing…The key point was that after finishing the worksheets we can connect the components in whichever way we want. It looks like a design.”
He is self-motivated in learning physics without extrinsic motives as he possessed well-developed individual interest. He generated the feeling of anxiety when writing the report because of the external factor of assessment. In phenomenological aspect, student M1 was worried about getting a low mark, leading to the arousal of uncomfortable emotion on doing the report. His behavioral response to his anxiety was working seriously on the report, especially on its formatting which is out of any learning scope of physics.
Student M3 has a generally positive impression of IS. However, he did not write it as one of the most interesting learning experiences because of the SBA,
“…tends to be positive. I can learn how to conduct an experiment with the assistance of software. It is better than measuring manually. I felt good by using new technology.”
“…I haven’t written IS as the most interesting because it was assessed as a part of the public examination. It gives a negative image to me… I treated it as an examination and did it seriously. I could not enjoy doing the experiment… If it would not be assessed, the experience was quite good because I could try some new methods to do experiments.”He tried to express the negative feelings to the assessment. His scientific knowledge on repeated measurements in minimizing random errors was justified.
“...I do it(experiment) seriously when being assessed. In order to do well, I had to repeat the work several times so it became boring… (Repeated measurement) is better (as it is more accurate). But it would be assessed and I am afraid of making mistakes… (and) time is limited.”
He disliked being assessed, with reasons different from that of student M1. In phenomenological aspect, he was worried about getting inaccurate experimental results, leading to a negative emotion of feeling bored on repeated measurements. His behavioral response was to measure the same set of data repeatedly to cope with his anxiety of being assessed for the accuracy of data.
Both students M1 and M3 showed a significant degree of test anxiety in IS. To cope with the anxiety, their responses are similar: to work more seriously. This is a desirable attitude, though certain negative feelings were generated and they did irrelevant work. It comes to a question of whether the SBA in IS is worth conducting or not. Student M4 expressed his view on SBA,
“I feel that is okay. Assessment would make us serious. But the percentage (of SBA) in the public examination should not be too high. The current mark allocation is quite good as only the experiment with the highest mark will be selected. Making some mistakes would not cause a big problem. The assessment has a function on making us seriousas well as providing an atmosphere to learn and work seriously.”
He stated clearly that students tend to work seriously when being assessed. Such working atmosphere is desirable. He suggested that SBA should allow students to make mistakes and provide them with opportunities to self-correct. Also, for those who score a low mark in SBA, they can still get a high score in HKDSE if he or she can do well in the written examination, which constitutes to 80% of the subject mark. Although test anxiety has a negative effect by generating anxious feeling, it encourages students to work seriously. Student M1 disliked being assessed in writing reports, but the fact was that he typed the report in a cautious manner. Student M3 disliked being assessed in measurements, and the outcome was that he tried his best to obtain accurate results.
SBA, as part of a high-stakes public examination, certainly generates test anxiety for many students (Hill & Wigfield, 1984). However, it is effective to ensure students to work seriously in IS or practical work. To consider the effect of high anxiety in lowering the achievement (Hill & Wigfield, 1984), the assessment scheme of SBA should be formulated carefully to avoid overwhelming students’ anxiety. From the comment of student M3, test anxiety could be reduced by providing students allowance on making mistakes without or with less consequence. Their anxiety can be relieved if opportunities for correction are given. Although the detailed implementations vary among schools, the intention to reduce test anxiety in SBA should be the same.
