Enhancing Student Interest to Promote Learning in Science: The Case of the Concept of Energy

• Main Authors: Georgia Toli, Maria Kallery
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Education Sciences
• Subjects: teaching energy; enhancing interest; energy in high school; high school physics; interest development; interest in science
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/5/220

This paper presents an intervention aiming to promote students’ learning by enhancing their interest in the concept of energy. Junior high school students’ learning and interest is evaluated after engaging in activities on work and energy. The intervention integrated hands-on and simulated experiments included a structured series of guided investigative tasks and whole-class discussions. The intervention was delivered to an experimental group consisting of 110 junior high school students. The control group consisted of 96 students of the same grade level, where students were taught about energy in the traditional sense, i.e., via the standard textbook. Written tests were then handed to all students to assess their learning outcomes. The results showed that the learning outcomes of students in the experimental group were significantly better than those of students in the control group. A notable increase in interest from students in the experimental group compared to that of the control group was also observed. Findings also showed a significant positive correlation between interest and academic achievement. This study reconfirms that enhancing interest could lead to better learning outcomes and its evidence-based methodology can be equally applied when introducing students to other difficult concepts of science.