Promoting girls' interest and achievement in physics classes for beginners
Section snippets
Students' interest in physics
In our context, interest in physics is seen as a psychological construct and is understood as the relation of a student to physical matters. This relation is defined among other things by the knowledge a student has in the field; his or her physics-related self-concept, experience of competence, and self-determined engagement; and various emotional and affective components (cf. Renninger, 1992). It is assumed that interest emerges from an individual's interaction with his or her environment (
An intervention project
The intervention project focused on the initial courses in junior high schools (our Gymnasium), e.g. grade seven. Six schools in northern Germany with 6 physics teachers (3 female; 3 male) and 12 classes (150 girls; 139 boys) took part in the intervention project. Another two schools with 7 classes (103 girls; 64 boys) and 6 teachers (1 female; 5 male) were involved as the control group.
Results
In order to evaluate the effects of the intervention program on students' interests in physics and different personal characteristics, pre- and post-test questionnaires were given at the beginning and the end of the school year to all students in the experimental groups and in the control group as well as in the follow up study.
Discussion
Our results clearly show that introductory physics instruction oriented to girls' and boys' interests instead of the traditional physics lessons leads to significantly better learning achievements for both. For boys the interest oriented introductory physics lessons also have a positive influence on achievement in the following traditional lessons in grade 8. For girls this positive effect can only be observed when the interest oriented physics lessons are combined with partial single-sex
References (67)
- et al.
Interestingness — a neglected variable in discourse processing
Cognitive Science
(1986) - et al.
Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
(1978) - et al.
Interest, mental health, and attitudinal correlates of academic achievement among university students
British Journal of Educational Psychology
(1976) - et al.
Technical problem solving among 10-year-old students as related to science achievement, out-of-school experience, domain-specific control beliefs, and attribution patterns
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
(1998) - Brophy, J. (1985). Interaction of male and female students with male and female teachers. In L. Ch. Wilkinson, & C. B....
- Crossman, M. (1987). Teachers' interactions with girls and boys in science lessons. In A. Kelly, Science for girls?...
- et al.
Question-asking comfort: explorations of the demography of communication in the eighth grade classroom
Communication Education
(1994) - Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic motivation. New York: Plenum...
- Deci, E. L. (1980). Intrinsic motivation and personality. In E. Staub, Personality. Basic aspects and current research...
- et al.
Sex differences in learned helplessness: II. The contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom; III An experimental analysis.
Developmental Psychology
(1978)
Gender, text, and discussion: examining intellectual safety in the science classroom
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Measuring students' interest in physics — design and results of a cross-sectional study in the Federal Republic of Germany
International Journal of Science Education
Wie Physikunterricht auch für Mädchen interessant werden kann
NiUPhysik
A curricular frame for physics education: development, comparison with students' interests and impact on students' achievement and self-concept
Science education
Zur Unterrepräsentanz von Mädchen in Naturwissenschaften und Technik: Psychologische Prädiktoren der Fach- und Berufswahl
Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie
Cited by (194)
Effects of reading contextualized physics problems among men and women: A psychophysiological approach
2023, Trends in Neuroscience and EducationCuriosity and interest: what should educators know and consider?
2022, International Encyclopedia of Education: Fourth EditionInterest: A unique affective and cognitive motivational variable that develops
2022, Advances in Motivation Science