Students’ Achievement in Learning Chemistry Through the Design and Construction Approach to Laboratory Activity and the Relation with their Prior Achievements and Motivation to Learn

Abstract

Students’ achievement in learning chemistry through the design and construction approach to laboratory activity and the relation with their prior achievements and motivation to learn is discussed in this chapter by Vrtacnik, Sodja, and Jurisevic. Authors claim that the design and construction approach to activities in chemistry lessons for middle school students is regarded as an authentic science activity, and that this approach to learn chemistry is quite rarely practised in science classes. In this approach, students were asked to design their own experiments and control variables. The results suggest that students’ success in the design and construction approach depended upon the complexity of a particular task. A significant drop off in achievements and motivation scores was found with tasks based on more abstract thinking, e.g., analyzing data and setting up hypotheses. In evaluating the design and construction approach, students expressed the highest appreciation for a positive classroom atmosphere and their active participation in the laboratory activity. The research findings revealed that students with higher achievement in chemistry are also highly extrinsically and intrinsically motivated for learning chemistry and have a higher academic self-concept.