The Prospects of Transdisciplinary Approach to Promote Learners’ Cognitive Interest in Natural Science for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Abstract The use of transdisciplinary approach to promote learners’ interest in the acquisition of natural science at school provides new opportunities for a complex explanation of the phenomenon and improving the quality of the process of learning. The aim of the study is to explore the learners’ cognitive interest, personal participation and the approaches chosen by teachers from the perspective of transdisciplinary approach. The study characterises students’ subjective evaluations of their personal participation and cognitive interest in the subjects of biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, and the approaches used by teachers. The participants were 9th grade students from 17 Latvian schools (536 respondents) with the average age of 15.3 (SD=0.63). The results of the study showed that students’ evaluations concerning their personal participation in the process of learning were contradictory. They devote little of their free time to the acquisition of science subjects. As to teachers’ activity, a variety of teaching approaches are used. According to students’ subjective evaluations, the constructivist learning approach corresponds to the trends of sustainable education, whereas the overall context in which the development of learners’ cognitive interest in the acquisition of natural science subjects takes place at school highlights issues concerning the sustainable development of the system and the prospects of using the transdisciplinary approach.