Abstract
Given that interest is associated with learning in educational research, understanding how its development can be supported in different learning contexts represents an important line of inquiry. In this study, we investigate the influence of the slowmation construction process on middle school students’ interest in learning science and geology. Both quantitative and qualitative data were generated from four classes of ninth-grade students; two classes participated in the construction of a slowmation about tectonic plate boundaries (n = 52) and two classes experienced a state-mandated programme of instruction (n = 43). The students completed the Student Interest in Learning Science Survey, a Likert-style instrument, which examined their level of situational and individual interest prior to their participation in the study and upon their completion of the construction task or mandated instruction. Statistical analyses of these data revealed that the students who constructed a slowmation demonstrated significant increases in their interest in learning science and geology, while the students who experienced regular classroom instruction demonstrated lower levels of interest by the end of the study. Interview data obtained from students who constructed a slowmation suggest that the construction process afforded opportunities to work and learn in active, hands-on and collaborative ways; to exercise creativity; and to engage with technology. Importantly, increases in students’ interest appeared to emerge from the early attentional and affective stages of their interest development, rather than through a meaningful connection to the geological subject matter, which has theoretical implications for interest research in learning contexts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2017). The Australian Curriculum: Science. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/science/
Brown, J., Murcia, K., & Hackling, M. (2013). Slowmation: a multimodal for engaging children with primary science. Teaching Science, 59(4), 14–20.
Creswell, J. (2014). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Sydney: Pearson Australia.
Creswell, J. (2015). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc..
Dawson, V., & Carson, K. (2013). Science teachers’ and senior secondary school students’ perceptions of earth and environmental science topics. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 29(2), 202–220.
de Vaus, D. (2014). Surveys in social research (6thEd). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Dolphin, G., & Benoit, W. (2016). Students’ mental model development during historically contextualized inquiry: how the ‘tectonic plate’ metaphor impeded the process. International Journal of Science Education, 38(2), 276–297.
Froyland, M., Remmen, K., & Sorvik, G. (2016). Name dropping or understanding?: teaching to observe geologically. Science Education, 100(5), 923–951.
Hetherington, L. (2010). Less interested after lessons? Report on a small-scale research study into 12- to 13-year old students’ attitudes to earth science. School Science Review, 91(337), 59–65.
Hidi, S., & Renninger, A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111–127.
Hidi, S., & Renninger, A. (2017). The need for if-then propositions in the study of interest development: corrections for Rotgans and Schmidt (2017). British Educational Research Journal. (is this missing page numbers, etc.?)
Hoban, G., & Nielsen, W. (2012). Using “Slowmation” to enable preservice primary teachers to create multimodal representations of science concepts. Research in Science Education, 42(6), 1101–1119.
Hoban, G., & Nielsen, W. (2014). Creating a stop-motion animation to explain science: the affordances of “slowmation” for generating discussion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 42, 68–78.
Hoban, G., & Nielsen, W. (2015). Designing a digital resource to explain phases of the moon: a case study of preservice elementary teachers making a slowmation. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52(9), 1207–1253.
Hoban, G., Loughran, J., & Nielsen, N. (2011). Slowmation: preservice elementary teachers representing science knowledge through creating multimodal digital animations. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(9), 985–1009.
Jack, B., & Lin, H. (2014). Igniting and sustaining interest among students who have grown cold toward science. Science Education, 98(5), 792–814.
Janson, M., Lüdtke, O., & Schroeders, U. (2016). Evidence for a positive relationship between interest and achievement: examining between-person and within-person variation in five domains. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 46, 116–127.
Jocz, J., Zhai, J., & Tan, A. (2014). Inquiry learning in the Singaporean context: factors affecting student interest in school science. International Journal of Science Education, 36(15), 2596–2618.
Kennedy, J., Lyons, T., & Quinn, F. (2014). The continuing decline of science and mathematics enrolments in Australian high schools. Teaching Science, 60(2), 34–46.
Kidman, G. (2016). Pre-service teachers’ use of slowmation. In G. Hoban, W. Nielsen, & A. Shephard (Eds.), Student generated digital media in science education (pp. 166–176). London: Routledge.
Krapp, A., & Prenzel, M. (2011). Research on interest in science: theories, methods, and findings. International Journal of Science Education, 33(1), 27–50.
Krapp, A., Hidi, S., & Renninger, A. (1992). Interest, learning and development. In A. Renninger, S. Hidi, & A. Krapp (Eds.), The role of interest in learning and development (pp. 3–25). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Durkik, A., Conley, A., Barron, K., Tauer, J., Karabenick, S., & Harackiewicz, J. (2010). Measuring situational interest in academic domains. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 70(4), 647–671.
Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Patall, E., & Messersmith, E. (2013). Antecedents and consequences of situational interest. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(4), 591–614.
Mills, R., Tomas, L., & Lewthwaite, B. (2016). Learning in Earth and space science: A review of conceptual change instructional approaches. International Journal of Science Education, 38(5), 767–790.
Mills, R., Tomas, L., & Lewthwaite, B. (2017). Junior secondary school students’ conceptions about plate tectonics. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 26(4), 297–310.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2005). Assessing scientific, reading, and mathematical literacy: a framework for PISA 2006. Paris: OECD Publications.
Paige, K., Bentley, B., & Dobson, S. (2016). Slowmation: an innovative twenty-first century teaching and learning tool for science and mathematics pre-service teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), 1–15.
Palmer, D., Dixon, J., & Archer, J. (2016). Identifying underlying causes of situational interest in a science course for preservice elementary teachers. Science Education, 100(6), 1039–1061.
Palmer, D., Dixon, J., & Archer, J. (2017). Using situational interest to enhance individual interest and science-related behaviours. Research in Science Education, 47(4), 731–753.
Potvin, P., & Hasni, A. (2014). Interest, motivation and attitude towards science and technology at K-12 levels: a systematic review of 12 years of research. Studies in Science Education, 50(1), 85–129.
Renninger, A., & Hidi, S. (2011). Revisiting the conceptualisation, measurement, and generation or interest. Educational Psychologist, 46(3), 168–184.
Rotgans, J., & Schmidt, H. (2017). The role of interest in learning: knowledge acquisition at the intersection of situational and individual interest. In P. O’Keefe & J. Harackiewicz (Eds.), The science of interest (pp. 69–93). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Saldaña, J. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Schiefele, U. (1991). Interest, learning and motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26(3), 299–323.
Schiefele, U., Krapp, A., & Winteler, A. (1992). Interest as a predictor of academic achievement: a meta-analysis of research. In A. Renninger, S. Hidi, & A. Krapp (Eds.), The role of interest in learning and development (pp. 183–212). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Shepherd, A., Hoban, G., & Dixon, R. (2014). Using slowmation to develop the social skills of primary school students with mild intellectual disabilities: four case studies. Australasian Journal of Special Education, 32(2), 150–168.
Tabachnick, B., & Fidell, L. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Unwin.
Tomas, L., Girgenti, S., & Jackson, C. (2017). Preservice teachers’ attitudes towards sustainability and its relevance to their learning: Implications for pedagogical practice. Environmental Education Research, 23(3), 324–347.
Tomas, L., Ritchie, S., & Tones, M. (2011). Attitudinal impact of hybridized writing about a socio-scientific issue. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(8), 878–900.
Wishart, J. (2017). Exploring how creating stop-motion animations supports student teachers in learning to teach science. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 49(1), 88–101.
Yoon, S., & Peate, D. (2015). ‘Teaching what I learned’: exploring students’ earth and space science learning experiences in secondary school with a particular on their comprehension of the concept of ‘geologic time’. International Journal of Science Education, 37(9), 1436–1453.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mills, R., Tomas, L., Whiteford, C. et al. Developing Middle School Students’ Interest in Learning Science and Geology Through Slowmation. Res Sci Educ 50, 1501–1520 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9741-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9741-8