Falling in love and staying in love with science: ongoing informal science experiences support fascination for all children
Falling in love and staying in love with science: ongoing informal science experiences support fascination for all children
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DOI：
10.1080/09500693.2019.1623431
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发表时间：
2019-06-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Schunn, Christian D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bonnette, Rachel N.;Crowley, Kevin;Schunn, Christian D.
10-14 岁是孩子们对科学是否“适合他们”产生强烈意识的时期，这个时期通常与美国初中的开始以及他们第一次接触更严格的科学课程和测试同时发生。无论好坏，学校内外的科学经历都可以塑造孩子选择科学职业或参加自愿科学课程的动机。我们探讨了这样一个假设：在此时期开始时参与更多非正式教育科学体验的孩子比同龄人更有可能获得并保持对科学的兴趣、好奇心和掌握目标（共同形成一个称为迷恋的结构）。我们测量了 983 名儿童在六年级初期和中期对科学的迷恋程度。我们发现，在此期间参与非正式科学的孩子比开始时更有可能保持或有更大的兴趣。这些发现成立，同时还控制了许多潜在的混杂协变量，并且在按性别和种族/族裔划分的亚组中都具有稳健性。此外，对于那些家庭普遍支持他们学习的孩子来说，影响最大。
Ages 10-14 mark a period in which children develop a strong sense of whether science is 'for them,' a time that typically coincides with the start of middle school in the United States and their first exposure to more rigorous science classes and testing. Experiences with science in and out of school can shape children's motivation to choose science careers or participate in voluntary science classes later on, for better or worse. We explore the hypothesis that children who engage in more informal educational science experiences at the start of this period are more likely than their peers to obtain and maintain interest, curiosity, and mastery goals in science (together forming a construct called fascination). We measured 983 children's fascination with science at the beginning and middle of sixth grade. We found that the children who participated in informal science during this time were more likely to maintain or have greater fascination than at the start. These findings held while also controlling for many potentially confounding covariates and are robust across subgroups by gender and race/ethnicity. Further, the effects are largest for those children whose family generally supports their learning.