A Cultural Perspective on the Structure of Student Interest in Science

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the nature of interest in science as represented in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data. We discuss the interconnections between measures of knowledge, affect, and value as components of interest in science. Working from a perspective acknowledging that many of the models of motivation represented in the literature have been developed in Western countries, we investigated whether the ways that knowledge, affect, and value combine in the structure of students’ interest in science might vary in line with historical and cultural traditions. Four countries were chosen to represent contrasting cultural values as defined in analyses of the World Values Surveys and the European Values Surveys—Colombia, Estonia, USA, and Sweden. Models are described showing variations in fit across the four countries. Efforts to increase the attractiveness of science to students should take heed of the fact that all models indicated a central role for enjoyment of science in the paths linking personal value, interest, and current science activities with intentions for future participation in science. Differences in the strength of the associations between science knowledge and interest in science support the proposition that the interconnections between knowledge, affect, and value need to be understood in relation to students’ broader historical and cultural context.

Keywords:

• Large‐scale studies
• Scientific literacy
• Structural equation modelling
• Interest
• Motivation
• Cultural context

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented in 2009 at the conference of the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction, Amsterdam, August, 2009, and at the European Commission Conference, ‘Improving Education: Evidence from Secondary Analysis of International Studies’, Stockholm, November, 2009.

Notes

1. The exception to this general level of response was the set of items requiring students to record interest and support for science ratings to topics that they worked on as part of the measure of science achievement. With respect to the interest ratings, at the end of designated problems students were asked for ratings of how interested they were in engaging further with the particular topic they had been working on. These items are referred to as the ‘embedded interest items’. These embedded items are not dealt with here but are the subject of another investigation (Ainley & Ainley, in press).

2. UIS data base accessed from http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev.php?URL_ID=3753&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201