STEM and Affect in Adolescence: A Cultural-Historical Approach

Abstract

It is well known that by the time students enter adolescence, many of them have lost, or are beginning to lose, interest in STEM subjects. Aversion, anxiety, and other forms of affect toward STEM subjects also turn negative; and what traditional psychology theorizes as motivation also wanes when students pass the crisis—as Vygotsky called it—that takes them into adolescence. Affect tends to be attributed to the individual, but from cultural-historical perspectives, there is much more to it, and there are many social phenomena (e.g., watching a game, being at a party) where the individual is affected by the social effervescence. In this paper, I take a cultural-historical perspective to contribute to building a theory of affect in STEM. I am doing so by drawing on examples from my own teaching experience, where, when students choose the object/motive of activity, motivation also is very high. I discuss two concepts of learning: students engage in expansive learning when what they learn increases their agency and control over conditions (e.g., tasks); and they engage in defensive learning for the purpose of avoiding negative consequences (e.g., low grades, punishment). One way of approaching affect is through the phenomenon of astonishment. Astonishment is a positive affect, which is not cultured in classrooms; and yet if classrooms offer space for students to submit themselves to astonishment, then there is no need to motivate them by behaviorist means. I conclude by arguing for cultures of affect in STEM classrooms, which are especially important during adolescence, when so many students currently are turned off.