A school-based study on situational interest of investigative study in senior physics

This research also intends to study how students’ interest in physics possibility affects academic achievement and the enrollment in physics-related further studies. Table 4 shows the interviewees’ responses.

Students’ code	Interest level	HKDSE result	Intended choice on University admission	Interest decided subject choice	Rationale of subject choice
M1	8-9	5*	Actuarial science	×	- To challenge something advanced - good perceptual career prospect
M2	9	5*	Engineering	✓	- highly interested - good perception of engineer
M3	6-7	3	Engineering	✓	- moderately interested - easier for admission
M4	6	3	Business	×	- poor perceptual career prospect in science-related field
M5	2-3	5*	Business and law	✓	- Low interest

The result is consistent with the findings by Stokking (2000) in the Netherlands that the most significant factor on subject selection for further studies is the future relevance. Interest, together with students’ perceived understanding on the career and perceptual ability, are other significant factors affecting their decision of further studies. Three out of the five interviewees made their decision consistent to their interest in physics.

For the relationship between interest and academic achievement, a larger sample size is required to generate a significant correlation for a quantitative study. Schunk et al (2014) found that generally both situational interest and personal interest have a positive effect on various academic achievements. Schiefel et al (1992) found that there is a positive interest-achievement correlation in physics such that interest explains about 9.61% of achievement, which suggests that interest has a positive effect on academic achievement. However, someone who is not interested but treats it as “important” may still strive for good achievement (Krapp et al, 1992).

Besides considering interest as a positive factor affecting further studies or academic achievement, interest is one of the learning outcomes (Krapp et al, 1992). Students who are interested in physics could better sustain 3-year studies in senior forms so as to prepare for the HKDSE. Citizens being interested in physics or science are one of the key elements in developing public scientific literacy. They are willing to learn science or physics-related matters in the future, and are aware of those issues in society or appreciation of science and technology (Thomas & Durant, 1987).

The research instrument asked students to present their most interested learning experiences and the wording “learning experiences” may lead students to write experiments. Although bias may exist, they had to make the decision on choosing what is perceived to be interesting. In fact, 32 out of 79 items are some non-experiment experiences.

Another limitation may be the time lag. Students learned different topics throughout a 4-year time frame, i.e. from Form 3 to 6. They may have fresh memory for the more recent learning experience. Among the 79 items, 14 are not specified to any topics and 11 items belong to those taught in Form 3 to 4. The data did not show any crucial effect of memory lost. Instead, all interviewees were form 6 students who were preparing HKDSE. They began to revise all the topics, which somehow refreshes their memories of learning.

The data from the interviews may not be able to describe the process of students’ interest development completely. It may be due to the limited interview time. The researcher, who was the participants’ teacher in the previous years, supported them to express themselves with supplement of background information according to the researcher’s record of learning and teaching. The identity of the researcher as the interviewees’ teacher facilitated the expression of students, while students may respond selectively during interviews due to this relationship. To minimize this effect, at the beginning of each interview the researcher declared that the research was for academic purposes such that the interviewee shall response honestly regardless of their relationship with the researcher.

IS is a kind of contextual pedagogy that refers to emerging content, didactics and world views into the learning situation (Malka et al, 2003). It is not only teaching knowledge in certain contexts but also from the students’ authentic interests and needs as human beings. Students took videos on their own designed setups and used MVA to analyze such that the context-based framework provided a high degree of autonomy (Klein et al， 2014). The hands-on experiments enabled students to have a better insight into the physics principles covered in normal lessons (Tho et al, 2015). Their engagement in discussion based on their knowledge supported the cognitive meaning construction (Malka et al, 2003). The creation of a motivating learning environment and students’ active engagement in the lesson are both the students and teachers’ conceptions of good science teaching (Yung et al, 2013). Since the pedagogy embedded content into a meaningful context, school’s internal and external environments are bridged and integrated (Malka et al, 2003). From the interviews, the authentic nature of IS provided opportunities to students to apply knowledge that facilitated the development of their personal significance towards the content (Schiefele et al, 1992), so as to trigger their situational interest.

With a strategic planning for a period for IS, it is favorable for students to internalize the value and enhance the positive feeling to support the development of individual interest (Krapp, 2002). IS provided students autonomy and flexibility to plan, construct and implement their setup. Students usually appreciated the probable integration of technology, such as the use of MVA, into the IS as they felt competence when being able to operate something advanced. They were highly engaged in operating an authentic setup and got an in-depth understanding on the concepts applied in the tasks.

The implementation of IS met two major hindrances. The first one is the test anxiety based on the SBA nature in IS. Students are anxious in such a high-stakes assessment. The negative feelings lowered their interest and performance while assuring students’ serious working attitude. Therefore, when planning SBA, there should be cautious consideration on striking a balance between maintaining students’ attitude and minimizing their anxiety.

The second hindrance is a deal of teaching time. Teachers may argue that lesson time will be sacrificed for IS which seems to have no apparent effect on students’ academic performance. From the findings of this research, IS is effective in developing students’ interest, appreciation on applying technology and improved understanding of the relevant concepts. Interest development depends on both short-time feelings and long-term valuing and building knowledge on the subject. Students who got well-developed individual interest can be enduring to frustrations and resourceful when situations do not allow them to have answers immediately (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). These are desirable qualities for students to sustain a 3-years study in NSS physics. Students who are interested in physics are intrinsically motivated to study independently to strive for a better performance. This is worth considering as students’ interest is raised through IS, with due consideration of relevant concepts to be emphasized for students.

IS, as a contextual pedagogy, relies on whether students have the opportunity to learn through authentic tasks. From the experience in Scotland, its application-led course for Standard Grade curriculum was able to retain the enrollment in physics and arouse students’ interest (Norman et al, 2002). The rationale behind contextual pedagogy is close to the application-led course of which integrates content into a meaningful context. Scotland’s successful experience inspired that the contextual pedagogy, such as IS, can promote students’ interest and retain the enrollment in physics.