Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1 Levels of context in
science education [adapted
from Finkelstein (
2005
)]
situation
, the
classroom situation
, and the
out-of-school situation
(Fig.
1
). While
the task situation refers to the specific content-related situation a task is embedded
in, like the storyline of a problem introduced to students, the classroom and out-of-
school situations are rather social and/or cultural in nature. The classroom situation
describes where and how the task takes place (e.g., group work in the lab), whereas
the out-of-school component adds the cultural aspects that influence learning
(cultural attitude towards being engaged in the task).
Context-based learning may take place on all levels and might thus be examined
on each level. In this chapter, “context” is not regarded as the surrounding social
and structural dispositions but as the situation presented in the learning task that can
directly be connected to chemistry content. While learning on the other levels is
dependent on general educational choices, the situation in the learning task does
clearly relate to chemistry content knowledge. Thus, not only the task situation
(context) might have an effect on the affective domain but also the underlying
chemistry content knowledge and the interaction of the two.
The affective domain in chemistry education is basically concerned with factors
that positively influence students
engagement in a learning activity. For example,
when the content and context of a task are considered, the theoretical construct of
interest comes into play. “Interest is conceptualized as an affective state that
represents students
'
subjective experience of learning; the state that arises from
either situational triggers or a well-developed individual interest” (Ainley,
2006
,
p. 391). As well-developed individual interest in chemistry content is generally low
(Osborne, Simon, & Collins,
2003
), situational triggers have to be considered to
make chemistry learning more attractive to students. Here, a task situation within
the students
'
own experience (e.g., swimming lake) can be used as a trigger of
situational interest.
Interest theories like the person-object theory (Krapp, Hidi, & Renninger,
1992
)
define situational interest as strictly object-dependent or as being conceptualized in
direct relation to an object of learning. Schiefele (
1991
) further defines interest “as a
content-specific intrinsic motivational orientation” (p. 303) and discusses two
valences of situational interest that further describe the construct: emotion- and
value-related valences. Emotion-related valences refer to the positive experiential
state during a content-related activity, while value-related valences embrace the
person
'
s attribution of personal significance to the content of the activity.
'
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