Psychological aspects of learning about basic electricity in rural and urban classes

Abstract

In search of a better understanding of the learning difficulties in basic electricity, the psychological background of the students was analysed. For this reason, in addition to data on learning results, data were collected also on the following psychological variables: interest, achievement motivation, IQ and cognitive development. The study was carried out in three schools, one in a rural region and two in the urban region around Stuttgart. Considerable differences were observed between the schools in the urban and in the rural region. In the urban classes the results in a class test were markedly less good than in the rural classes. A factor analysis reveals that in the urban classes learning electricity is related primarily to interest and motivation and only secondarily to cognitive ability. In the rural classes, however, a close conncection was found between learning electricity and the students’ cognitive abilities, whereas interest and achievement motivation occurred in separate factors. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical construct ‘mindfulness’ defined by Salomon (1987) as ‘a package of partly motivational states and partly cognitive actions’.

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Christoph v. Rhöneck‡

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