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ABSTRACT
Considering the reported lack of interest in the STEM-domain and the consequential difficulties in recruiting talented and interested young academics, the development of effective enrichment measures is indispensable. This requires a precise picture of students’ interests. The paper presents an approach to characterize interest profiles in explicitly science-related activities. Adapting Holland's RIASEC-model, an instrument was developed and tested which allows the description of interest in activities along Holland's dimensions (and a seventh dimension networking) within the confined science domain. The findings of a study with N = 247 students (age cohorts 12–19 years) uncovered interest differences for the environments school, enrichment, and (prospective) vocation. The mutual importance of the performed activity and the environment the activity is performed in is confirmed by a cross-classified model. Contrasting different subgroups revealed multiple results, e.g., girls showed more interest in artistic and social activities within the science domain. High achieving students showed more interest in science-related activities in all dimensions. In conclusion, using our adapted model, students’ interest structure can be described in a differentiated manner. This could lay the foundation for further analyses of students’ interest profiles and thereby contribute to future development of effective and congruent enrichment measures, thus enhancing interest in science.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank all students who participated in this study and Wilfried Wentorf for his support during the realization of the study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Pay O. Dierks is a teacher for Chemistry and Biology and recieved his PhD at the University of Kiel. Currently he teaches at a secondary school and supervises trainee teachers in Biology.
Tim N. Höffler is an instructional psychologist at the Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) Kiel. He received his PhD at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Janet S. Blankenburg is a teacher for Chemistry and English and received her PhD in chemistry education at the University of Kiel. She currently works at the Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) Kiel.
Heide Peters, a geochemist and Heisenberg Fellow (DFG), had been working as a research associate at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, and Göttingen University, Germany, for several years before she joined the Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) Kiel. Since 2008 she is director and country coordinator of the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) Germany.
Ilka Parchmann is head of the department for chemistry education at the Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) Kiel as well as a full professor at the University of Kiel.
Notes
1. In the German grading system, grades range from 1 to 6 with 1 being the highest and 6 being the lowest grade. All mean grades lower than 2.45 are ‘good' or ‘very good', all grades higher than and including 2.45 are merely ‘satisfying' (3), ‘sufficient' (4), ‘inadequate' (5), or ‘insufficient' (6).
2. In this paper, we define high self-concept as a mean value >3 on a five-point-Likert scale (1 to 5) and a low self-concept as a mean value <3. Students who did not indicate a clear tendency (i.e. with a mean value of 3) were disregarded for this particular pair-wise comparison.
3. In this paper, we define high general interest as a mean value >3 on a five-point-Likert-scale (1 to 5) and a low general interest as a mean value <3. Students who did not indicate a clear tendency (i.e. with a mean value of 3) were disregarded for this particular pair-wise comparison.