Interest in Science: Lessons and non-lessons from TIMSS and PISA

Abstract

The contemporary issue of students’ interest in science has caught the attention of both the current large-scale, international science assessment projects, Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Study Assessment (Reading, Mathematics and Science (PISA). The manner in which these student attributes have been measured in TIMSS has, however, suffered from a number of methodological inadequacies. As just one small part of very large data collections the instruments used do not measure up to those that are now expected for these affective attributes by main stream researchers. Furthermore, the project’s findings lack specificity in relation to both the target of the affect and in terms of the students’ experiences with science with which their affect can be associated. Accordingly, the findings hitherto provide little insight into what curriculum authorities could do to counteract the now alarming lack of interest in science among students in the more developed countries. The PISA Science project for 2006 is committed to correct some of these weaknesses and its approach, in which affect is now explicitly an expected outcome of learning science, is described. PISA Science has already confirmed the role of Science as A Story as an approach to teaching/learning that may have positive affective outcomes