Engaging Learners with Chemistry

Projects to Stimulate Interest and Participation

Ilka Parchmann, Shirley Simon, Jan Apotheker, Ilka Parchmann, Shirley Simon, Jan Apotheker

• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781788015080
• eBook ISBN: 9781839161278
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Professional Development

Many projects in recent years have applied context-based learning and engagement tools to the fostering of long-term student engagement with chemistry. While empirical evidence shows the positive effects of context-based learning approaches on students' interest, the long-term effects on student engagement have not been sufficiently highlighted up to now.

Edited by respected chemistry education researchers, and with contributions from practitioners across the world, Engaging Learners with Chemistry sets out the approaches that have been successfully tested and implemented according to different criteria, including informative, interactive, and participatory engagement, while also considering citizenship and career perspectives.

Bringing together the latest research in one volume, this book will be useful for chemistry teachers, researchers in chemistry education and professionals in the chemical industry seeking to attract students to careers in the chemical sector.

CHAPTER 1

Engaging Learners with Chemistry: How Can We Better Understand and Design Supporting Structures and Programs?

ILKA PARCHMANN,*^a SHIRLEY SIMON^b AND JAN APOTHEKER^c

^a The Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany

^b Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK

^c Department of Chemistry, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

*Email: [email protected]

1.1 Introduction

Many projects that focus on fostering student engagement have been initiated and developed in different parts of the world. Some build on theoretical models and research findings explicitly; others have been designed based on practical experiences. Many have been state-driven or third-party funded, e.g. by industry or foundations that support STEM education developments (see chapters in this book).

Evaluation and research have accompanied several projects, though with different connections to theory and also with different foci, e.g. on teachers’ roles, student outcomes or implementation processes (see chapters of this book). Models of characterisation for ‘engagement’ make statements about what influences engagement (e.g. relevance, Stuckey et al., 2013), how it can be fostered (see chapters of this book) and better understood (e.g. by mapping processes of interaction between variables, e.g.Urhahne et al., 2012; Höffler et al., 2017, both with regard to perceived support and success in student competitions).

With regard to transfer and changes in practice, especially those that aim to be long-lasting, hurdles still seem to be so high that changes are not sustained. When funding has ended it is more common that projects themselves come to an end, rather than lead to structures that enable them to be sustained in some way.

In summary, the current state of understanding and strengthening of engagement with science, or chemistry in particular, is still diverse as projects have different backgrounds, draw or build on different models and only seldom adopt holistic approaches, starting from theory and findings, linking those to specific goals and approaches, and investigating processes and outcomes with feedback loops on the design and implementation as well as on the roles of stakeholders like teachers or curriculum developers.

Hence, the claim for this book and elsewhere is that sustainable changes need holistic approaches and an involvement of different actors and processes right from the beginning, comparable to an ‘educational ecosystem’ with different niches, layered structures and iterative processes. This requires an analysis of the different structures and niches of today and future potentials, of the roles of the participating actors and of stimulating and hindering factors (like catalysts) and processes.

The models discussed in this chapter and the studies and approaches connected in this book focus on different aspects of such systems, including:

• Engagement: What do we mean with regard to different perspectives of interaction between individuals, science and society?
• Interaction models: How can we describe prerequisites, factors of influence and interaction processes on decision-making processes of actors of todays’ and future STEM education?
• Learning environments: How can we implement these models into the design and investigation of learning environments, teaching scenarios and learning processes, how can we motivate and activate students?
• Key players and stakeholders: Who could and should be involved at which stage and in which role, like teachers, industrial members of the society, or politicians?
• Outcomes for science and chemistry in particular: Where do we identify the most crucial demands and how can we address these successfully by promising approaches?

In the following paragraphs, key models and perspectives will be explored to lay a foundation for the specific approaches and research findings of the different chapters, with regard to school and out-of-school learning in different countries.

1.2 Engagement in Science and the Specific Niche of Chemistry—Still a Challenge

Do we raise interest and engagement sufficiently in chemistry and science? The ROSE report in particular painted a bleak picture of science education. While students are concerned about the environment and climate etc., science education did not seem to be very interesting, and is not seen as a means to work on these problems. Engaging students therefore has been and still is one of the major concerns in education (Sjøberg and Schreiner, 2010).

Indeed, science and chemistry in particular are related to different and partly non-coherent, if not even opposing interests and attitudes. In school, chemistry is viewed as fun and enjoyable with regard to watching or carrying out experiments, the latter related to positive attitudes (Hofstein, 2004). However, when it comes to theoretical interpretations, mathematical models and lab reports, this enjoyment might not always persist and the interplay between enjoyment, interest and learning is diverse with regard to such different scientific activities (Höft et al., 2019). Public audiences enjoy ‘science shows’ with regard to edutainment, but not as a focus point for someone's own engagement, also often not with regard to fostering a career option, especially of daughters or granddaughters. In addition, girls often underestimate their self-concept and self-efficacy with regard to the abilities they actually have, and they still experience stereotype threats like ‘hard sciences are for boys’ (Höffler et al., 2017; Steegh et al., 2019). Last but not least we all make use of chemical knowledge and all the products developed and designed based on that knowledge, but large groups of citizens still believe that chemistry is dangerous and should be avoided (Rocard et al., 2007).

One reason for non-sufficient attitudes and engagement might be the nature of how science and especially chemistry is presented in media and also in school science. Chemists have for a long time been regarded and presented as male, working mostly in white lab coats and perhaps being less social and rather nerdish people (Schummer, 2006; Weingart, 2006). Reflections on dominant images now seem to show that chemists and chemistry are presented by perhaps new stereotypes, related to either what the public might think of, like ‘magic liquids’ or what industry might want to point out more, like female scientists (https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/chemistrys-image-problem/3008806.article). Even people having or aiming at successful careers in chemistry often seem to reflect on such influences of stereotypes (e.g.https://www.labmanager.com/leadership-and-staffing/scientist-stereotype-is-it-working-for-or-against-you-20514). Another issue is the perception of relevance, hazards and achievements. Industry is rather connected to causes of environmental hazards, while products based on achievements of chemistry are regarded as normal and not as breakthroughs for the life we live today in many countries. With regard to motivation, school chemistry is often narrowed to learning formulae and carrying out experiments for which the outcomes are already known (Hofstein, 2004). While real science is complex and diverse with regard to fields and activities, school sciences mainly addressed well experienced, cookbook-like and conventional activities while especially creative, social and enterprising perspectives are seldom addressed (Hofstein and Kind, 2012; see also chapter by Bennett et al. in this book). The endeavour of better understanding the world and becoming a member of such an endeavour for the future has hardly been pointed out for a long time (Gago et al., 2004). In self tests for career orientation, like the test based on John Holland's RIASEC model, science is connected to only some of the list of facets, primarily to working with routine hands-on experiments (dimension ‘realistic’) and/or investigating new phenomena in academia (dimension ‘investigative’). Other facets like being interested in social activities are opposing to the typical science activities in the model. To overcome such stereotypes and probably hindering images with regard to engagement, a new approach has adapted this model to facets of interest within the science domain. The goal here is not to classify domains in prototype dimensions, where scientists are related to interests in investigative and realistic activities and others like nurses are related to other dimensions like social. In this new model, relations for all dimensions are created to science fields, like working with students or supporting societal demands in the social dimension, or developing and products or patents, or starting an enterprise based on a scientific finding. The classification is based on todays’ fields and activities of scientists and has been tested in school as well as in out-of-school learning settings (Stamer et al., 2019; Höft et al., 2019). Hence, this does not claim to actually measure peoples’ preferred interests in general, but only within the domain of science. Findings show that especially talented students do indeed express combined interests in investigative, social and networking dimensions when set in a science context (Dierks et al., 2016; Höffler et al., 2019).

How can we bridge such gaps to overcome stereotypes and too narrow beliefs without losing the enjoyment of chemistry? How could we even make use of the enjoyment of chemistry to strengthen individual, societal and career engagement by pointing out that learning and better understanding chemistry and science is fun and stimulating in itself? Showcasing the role of science, and more particular chemistry in society could be one of the ways to stimulate interest in science (see the special issue of the Journal of Chemistry Education, December 10, 2019 Volume 96, Issue 12 Pages 2679–3044, ‘Reimagining Chemistry Education: Systems Thinking and Green and Sustainable Chemistry’, for example). This can be done through formal learning in schools as well as informal learning in, for example, science centres. A closer cooperation be...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• Chapter 1 Engaging Learners with Chemistry: How Can We Better Understand and Design Supporting Structures and Programs?
• Chapter 2 Complexity, Intellectual Challenge and Ongoing Support: Key Learning Conditions to Enhance Students’ Engagement in STEM Education
• Chapter 3 Being a Scientist: The Role of Practical Research Projects in School Science
• Chapter 4 Engagement and Relevance Through Context-based, Everyday Life, Open-ended Chemistry Problems
• Chapter 5 Development of a Context-based Learning Model Where Teachers Link Regional Companies and Science Classes Utilizing Relevance to Students1
• Chapter 6 Cooperating With Companies Helps to Make Science Education More Relevant to School Students
• Chapter 7 Teaching and Learning Science From the Perspective of Industry Contexts
• Chapter 8 Research Visits as Nuclei for Educational Programs
• Chapter 9 Fostering Scientific Literacy with the Language of Science in the Production of a Nano-based After-sun Care Product in an Extracurricular Setting: A CLIL Approach in a Science Lab for School Students
• Chapter 10 Enhancing School Students’ Engagement in Chemistry Through a University-led Enrichment Programme
• Chapter 11 Can Participation in a Citizen Science Project Empower Schoolchildren to Believe in Their Ability to Act on Environmental Problems?
• Chapter 12 The Use of Contexts in Chemistry Education: A Reflection on System Levels and Stakeholder Involvement
• Chapter 13 Conclusions
• Subject Index