Abstract
An identification of students’ interests in biology can help teachers better engage their pupils and meet their needs. To this end, over 28,000 self-generated biological questions raised by students from kindergarten through graduate school were analyzed according to age and gender. The sample demonstrated a dominance of female contributions among K- 12 students. However, girls’ interest in submitting questions dropped as they grew older. Topics popular among different age groups of males and females were identified, and the development of interest was described. Ways in which students’ interests can be incorporated into a standard-based curriculum are discussed, mainly as a trigger for the learning of less popular subjects which are required by the curricula.
Highlights
Teaching students what they want to know can be a very beneficial pedagogical strategy
This study investigates the development of Kgraduate students' interest in different biological topics, based on a decade's worth of self-generated science questions sent to an Ask-A-Scientist site
This study focuses on the development of K-graduate students' interest in different biological topics, as it is being mirrored by their questions
Summary
Teaching students what they want to know can be a very beneficial pedagogical strategy. This study investigates the development of Kgraduate students' interest in different biological topics, based on a decade's worth of self-generated science questions sent to an Ask-A-Scientist site. The listed topics are based on adult-centric views of what subjects should be meaningful to the students To overcome this problem, a naturalistic method was developed for using students' self-generated questions as a source of information about their interests (Baram-Tsabari & Kaadni, 2009; Baram-Tsabari, Sethi, Bry, & Yarden, 2006; Baram-Tsabari, Sethi, Bry, & Yarden, 2009; Baram-Tsabari & Yarden, 2005, 2007, 2008; BaramTsabari & Yarden, 2009; Cakmakci, Sevindik, Pektas, Uysal, Kole, & Kavak, 2009; Falchetti, Caravita, & Sperduti, 2007; Yerdelen-Damar & Eryılmaz, 2009). This study is a part of a larger project in which a decade long worth of questions were collected from an Ask-A-Scientist site, in order to use children’s self-generated questions as an indication of their interest in science (BaramTsabari, Sethi, Bry, & Yarden, 2009). This study focuses on the development of K-graduate students' interest in different biological topics, as it is being mirrored by their questions
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