Learning Science: What's Curiosity Got To Do With It?

尽管对科学家和工程师的需求比以往任何时候都多，但很少有学生渴望从事这些职业，相反，他们认为学校的科学太“聪明”或“不适合其他人”。教师经常被鼓励将科学作为一种学习的知识体系，而不是一种探索世界的方式。那些Dowell的学生是那些最善于积累事实的人。如果还有另一种学习科学的方法，那会怎么样？如果学校强调对发现新事物的渴望，一种探索的渴望，那会怎样？我的研究着眼于好奇心在学习科学中扮演的角色。我们如何衡量好奇心呢？它会随着时间的推移而改变吗？是什么让学生对科学产生好奇心？这对学生在学校的理科成绩有帮助吗？这些都是我想要回答的问题。我的研究将在英国的一所中学进行，将使用问卷数据和访谈相结合的方式，看看好奇是否有助于学生在一年的时间里在科学方面取得进步。我会找出一年后他们在问卷上的分数是否会发生变化，并采访他们，看看课堂上发生了什么，让他们产生好奇心。如果我们能发现是什么让学生好奇，我们就可以开始改变我们向年轻人展示科学的方式。

While there is more demand than ever for scientists and engineers, few schoolstudents aspire to those careers, instead seeing school science as too 'brainy' or 'forother people'. Teachers are often encouraged to present science as a body ofknowledge to learn rather than a way of exploring the world. Those students who dowell are those who are best at accumulating the facts.What if there was another way to learn science? What if schools emphasised ahunger to find out something new, a desire to explore?My research sets out to look at the role that curiosity plays in learning science. Howcan we measure curiosity? Does it change over time? What makes students curiousabout science? Does it help students to do well in science at school? These are thequestions I want to answer.My study will take place in a secondary school in England, and will use acombination of questionnaire data and interviews to find out if being curious helpsstudents to make progress in science over the course of a year. I'll find out if theirscores on the questionnaire a year later change, as well as interviewing them to findout what happens in lessons to make them curious.If we can discover what makes students curious, we can start to change the way wepresent science to young people.