Detailed Emotional Profile of Secondary Education Students Toward Learning Physics and Chemistry

Abstract

The present research arises from the need to identify the emotions that K-7 to K-10 students experience toward the learning of Physics and Chemistry, since it is a fact that there is a decrease in the number of students choosing itineraries related to Science. Different blocks of contents have been considered in each subject in order to identify emotions toward each one of them. The considered sample consisted of 149 K-8 students, 152 K-9 students and 130 K-10 students from several middle and high schools in Badajoz (Spain) during the 2014–2015 school year. Students experienced more positive emotions toward the content of Chemistry than toward those of Physics. A decrease was detected in the mean frequency of positive emotions such as joy, fun, and tranquility from K-8 to K-10, as well as an increase in negative emotions such as boredom, anxiety, disgust, fear, nervousness, worry, and sadness. It has also been found that positive emotions toward Chemistry contents are mainly related to teachers’ methods and attitudes, while negative emotions toward Physics contents are related to the exclusive use of the textbook, solving Physics problems, or giving oral presentations of the topics in class.

Use of comparative research in the study of chemistry education: A systematic analysis of the literature

“…Chemistry education involves teaching and learning of skills and concepts of chemistry in academic institutions [ [1] , [2] , [3] ], ranging from high schools and colleges to polytechnics and universities [ 4 ]. Over the years, extensive efforts have been devoted to understanding the learning process and learning efficiency of chemistry students [ [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] ] and to enhancing the effectiveness of strategies to improve and assess learning outcomes in different scenarios (including classroom lectures, demonstrations, and laboratory activities) [ [10] , [11] , [12] ]. For instance, by interviewing college students at a research-intensive public university, an earlier study has discovered the difficulties among students in building mechanistic explanations for energy transfer between objects at different temperatures [ 13 ].…”

Metacognitive Strategies and Achievement Emotions as Predictors of Students’ Academic Self Efficacy in Learning Science

“…Studies byAcedo et al (2021) and Yang et al(2021) show that increased positive emotions lead to belief in learning specific content, while negative emotions are more common when students don't feel capable of learning. Therefore, positive emotions positively impact academic self-efficacy, while negative emotions negatively affect it.RecommendationsStudents should prioritize improving metacognitive strategy use and maintaining positive emotions in order to increase their self-efficacy when learning science.…”