Investigating the impact of classroom climate on UK school students taking part in a science inquiry-based learning programme – CREST

ABSTRACT

Understanding students’ capacity to direct their learning in school and beyond has been a sustained area of interest for practising science teachers, policy-makers, and educational researchers. This paper presents results from a longitudinal quasi-experimental study carried out to examine changes in students’ self-reported levels of self-regulatory processes and related motivations in science through taking part in an inquiry-based learning programme, the CREST programme. The study included a total of 178 students (aged 12-13) and was conducted in an individual school in Scotland. Previously published and validated measures of self-regulatory processes and related motivations were included as dependent variables and student classroom allocation was used as the independent variable in order to investigate the presence of any differences between the nine CREST classes in terms of changes on the measured variables. Results showed that overall, students experienced significant increases in levels of self-regulated learning, self-determination, self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and overall science motivation through participation in CREST. By contrast, a reference control class of students not taking part in the programme showed no significant changes on any measured outcomes. The findings also revealed no significant differences among the nine classes that participated in CREST in terms of changes on the outcome variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Science
• self-regulated processes
• inquiry
• motivation

Acknowledgments

The Author would like to thank both Dr Joanne Williams and Professor John Sproule who provided insight, expertise and support that greatly assisted the completion of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The CREST programme can be embedded into natural classrooms and used as a tool to work towards several key curriculum objectives while also developing these regulatory and motivational skills. The structure of the programme (eg. how many sessions over what time interval) is flexible in order to fit with school and teacher activities. Students work through projects, with support to guide them, and awards are made at three levels depending on the time commitment for the project: Bronze (10 hours), Silver (30 hours), and Gold (70 hours). This study investigates the Broze level of the award programme.

2. Research Question 4 will only be addressed if any class differences are found while addressing Research Question 3.

3. All pre-test, post-test, and change score means and standard deviations were presented previously in Tables 8–11.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julie Moote

Julie Moote obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh after qualifying and working as a secondary Science teacher in Canada. Julie joined the Institute of Education March 2017 as a post-doctoral research fellow in Professor Louise Archer's team, working on the second phase of the ASPIRES project, previously posted at King's College London. Her current research focuses on understanding young students' aspirations in science and the related factors that influence these aspirations. She has a particular interest in investigating how aspirations, attitudes, and self-beliefs change over time (and following interventions) and exploring potential mediating factors.