New Perspectives in Science Education

This paper reports on a study that examined whether practical work can be said to have affective outcomes and, if so, in what sense. The term ‘affective’ is used here to refer to the emotions, or feelings, engendered amongst students towards science in general and/or one or more of the three sciences (biology, chemistry and physics) in particular. The study, based on 25 multi-site case studies, employed a condensed fieldwork strategy. Data were collected using tape-recorded interviews and observational field notes in a sample of practical lessons undertaken in English comprehensive (non-selective) schools during Key Stages 3 and 4 (students aged 11-14 and 15-16, respectively). The findings suggest that whilst practical work generates short-term engagement, it is relatively ineffective in generating motivation to study science post compulsion or, indeed, longer-term personal interest in the subject. Furthermore, it also emerged that what science teachers frequently refer to as ‘motivation’ is, when analysed from a strictly psychological perspective, better understood in terms of situational interest. The fact that situational interest is short-lived and is, as such, unlikely to endure beyond the end of a lesson helps to explain why students need to be continually re-stimulated by the frequent use of practical work. Indeed, this study has found, despite frequents claims by students to like practical work, that their reasons for doing so appear to be primarily that they see it as preferable to non-practical teaching techniques that they associate, in particular, with more writing.These findings suggest that those involved with science education need to develop a more realistic understanding of the limitations of practical work in the affective domain. The implication is that simply doing more of the same practical work, whilst generating short-term situational interest, is unlikely to lead to enchanced student motivation towards the study of one, or more, science subjects in the post-compulsory phase of their education.