The learning process at school largely depends on students’ interest and self-concept. Research shows that individual interest and self-concept have a strong influence on the learning process and student achievement. This is especially true for science subjects, which are generally less popular among students. It follows that teachers of science subjects should more closely monitor students’ individual interest, foster it, and strengthen students’ academic self-concept particularly in these subjects. The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigate the interests and academic self-concept of sixth- and ninth-grade elementary school students in natural science and chemistry. We were also interested in how students’ interest and self-concept relate to their associations about chemistry, and which associations about chemistry occur most frequently. Students’ associations were measured using both the free word-association method and the free drawing-association method. Only the results of the drawing associations are presented in the master’s thesis, while the results of the word associations are presented in Teran (2020) in the bachelor’s thesis.
The study, conducted in the 2017/2018 school year, involved 827 students from 21 elementary schools in the Central Slovenia statistical region. Data were collected with two questionnaires, one for sixth-grade students and one for ninth-grade students. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyse the results, including quantitative analysis (for individual interest and academic self-concept) and qualitative analysis (for drawing associations).
The study found that sixth graders’ individual interest in chemistry is higher than that of ninth graders, and that academic self-concept in natural science is higher among sixth graders than academic self-concept in chemistry among ninth graders. We also found a modest relationship between a student’s drawing association and their interest and self-concept, although such relationships are difficult to measure using the drawing-association method. The study aimed to evaluate the free word-association and drawing-association methods as research tools for gaining insight into students’ individual interest, academic self-concept, and misconceptions in chemistry.
|
