Invertebrate disgust reduction in and out of school and its effects on state intrinsic motivation

Abstract

Invertebrates are used in environmental, biology, and science education. However, they can elicit disgust, which can be detrimental for motivational and learning outcomes. In addition, practical work including hands-on interaction with living invertebrates could be a viable way to reduce invertebrate disgust and strengthen state intrinsic motivation. Moreover, Big-Five personality may explain the students' reaction to the exposure with live invertebrates. Therefore, the present study tested the effects of an intervention with living invertebrates on disgust and state intrinsic motivation in a sample of 1861 students (age 10-12 years). Moreover, we tested whether an in-school or an out-of-school intervention was more successful in reducing disgust as compared to the control group. While disgust was measured at pre-and post-test, trait motivation was measured at pre-test and state intrinsic motivation was measured at post-test. Results show that while both treatment conditions reduced disgust more than the control condition, the out-of-school condition had a more pronounced disgust reduction than the school condition. Disgust was negatively related to state intrinsic motivation, but state intrinsic motivation was equally high in both treatment conditions (school and university). Extraversion was negatively and neuroticism was positively related to disgust. Big-Five personality was generally associated with state intrinsic motivation. In conclusion, invertebrate disgust can be successfully reduced by an intervention with live invertebrates. The workstation-based intervention with live invertebrates is useful in different settings, both in and out of school and effective with invertebrate species, especially with snails and mealworms, because children's disgust for these species was significantly reduced and lower disgust was related to higher state intrinsic motivation.

Adaptation of the intrinsic motivation inventory to Turkish

“…Wilde et al (2009) have carried out a scale adaptation study involving a 12-item scale as a short and economic version of "Intrinsic Motivation Inventory "(IMI). The four-factor model of the scales was confirmed in Germany with >1,700 secondary school students by a confirmatory factor analysis (Wüst-Ackermann et al, 2018). In the present study, this 12-item, 4-factor measurement instrument developed by Wilde et al (2009) was adapted to Turkish.…”

Wolves’ Conservation through Educational Workshops: Which Method Works Best?

“…The study encompassed a pre-test, the teaching intervention and a post-test ( Figure 2). As the purpose of the study was also to test which of the conditions, teacher-centered instruction, working at workstations or an out-of-school setting contributes most to the students' knowledge about and attitude towards wolves, the sample was divided into three groups, [36,37]. The teacher-centered School condition and the workshop School condition groups were from the general upper secondary school (School 1).…”

“…The results indicate that the university workshop treatment was most effective, even if it was performed by the same teacher and the instructions were identical for the school setting. According to Williams and Williams [57], students' motivation can also be improved by the change of learning environment, see also [35,36]. The difference may also be explained by the fact that the university group consisted mainly of veterinary technician school students, who expressed the most positive attitudes and the highest knowledge scores already before teaching.…”

Effects of Guided Inquiry-Based Model on Pre-Service Biology Teachers Attitude Towards Invertebrate Zoology Learning

“…This line with Tan et al (2020) found that GIBIM increase students' attitude to attain components of science learning with real life situation. Moreover, study conducted on invertebrate animals about disgust reduction in and out of school using active method of teaching enhances attitude of learners towards learning invertebrate animals (Joseph et al, 2017;Wüst-Ackermann et al, 2018).…”