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Abstract
Although anxiety is a significant emotional element of formal school science, little is known about how anxiety is originated and managed in the context of science fairs. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how a group of students in Grades 7 to 12 discursively (re)produce anxiety and its management from the perspective of their participation in a national science fair competition in Canada. Based on the analysis of participant's talk during a focus group interview, our findings suggest that performance anxiety is an emotion inherent to participation in all stages of the event: from choosing a project to the administration of time, performing in front of an audience, and gaining public recognition. In this context, recurring participation emerges as an effective strategy for coping with this feeling. In exploring the ways that academically successful science students talk about how anxiety is generated and regulated, we advance knowledge about science fair participation and contribute to current discussions on how to create more captivating school science learning environments for all.
Résumé
La présente étude analyse les façons dont des étudiants de la 7e à la 12e année (re)produisent discursivement l’anxiété et la gestion de l’anxiété liée à leur participation à un concours de type Expo-sciences au Canada. Fondé sur l’analyse des communications des participants au cours d’une entrevue dans le cadre d’un groupe de discussion, nos résultats suggèrent que l’anxiété liée au rendement est une émotion inhérente à cette participation, quelle que ce soit l’étape de l’événement en question, qu’il s’agisse du choix du sujet, de la gestion du temps, de la performance en public ou de la notoriété acquise au cours de l’événement. Dans ce contexte, la participation répétée s’avère une stratégie efficace pour affronter cette émotion.
Notes
1R stands for researcher and S for students, which is followed by a series of numbers and letters that denote specific information on different individual participants. For example, S1G10A16F indicates that student number 1 [S1, randomly assigned] is in Grade 10 [G10], is 16 years of age [A16], and is female [F]).
2NESA (NESA, n.d.) Virtual Science Fair currently implements a successful mentor-based model of science fair.