Which area of science do students and teachers find most interesting to teach
and be taught?
Jade Booth and Suzie Lovelock
Introduction:
We decided to study the question ‘Which area of science do students and teachers find
most interesting to teach and be taught?’ because after collecting our results and
enquiring into them we would be able to see which area of science needs to be
improved or made more exciting and therefore improve the quality of teaching and
how teachers prepare for lessons, making it more interesting for all people involved in
the learning of science! We know from our own experience that if the lesson is boring
then you tend to drift off and don’t learn or remember anything! If the teaching is
exciting and involves you it makes you want to learn and you generally remember and
learn most of the details.
Design:
We decided to find out the information we wanted by using questionnaires and
interviewing those people whose questionnaires looked interesting. We wanted the
questionnaires to tell us which science area was most preferred and which was the
least. We then wanted to examine the least preferred area of science and investigate
why it was the least preferred area. Also the favourite area and investigate why it was
so and therefore we can use that information and use it to help us improve the least
favourite one. This meant that the questionnaire consisted of 3 sections: 1 for physics,
1 for biology and 1 for chemistry. We asked questions that made people answer what
they liked about the subject and which was their favourite without making them
answering it directly. There were different depending on whether it was students or
teachers that were answering the questionnaire; for example on the teachers
questionnaire it would have been ‘I think children are enthusiastic about learning (1 of
the three subjects for example physics)’ but on the students it would have been ‘I
think teachers are enthusiastic about teaching (1 of the three subjects for example
physics)’. In these three sections there were statements like: I enjoy (1 of the three
subjects for example physics) and boxes consisting of what they thought about
science. The boxes were- depending on the question: either a lot, quite a lot, a bit, a
little, not much, or always, often, sometimes, seldom, and not at all. (see reference 1
and 2 in appendix.) We then looked through all the questionnaires and decided whose
was most interesting and then we interviewed people: 2 teachers and 4 students in
total. We would then be able to improve the lessons that most children find boring.
Collecting the Data:
Our data sample was a form from year 7, year 8 and year 9. There were about 30
people in each form. Our data sample also included all of the teachers that teach year
7, year 8 and year 9. Overall we collected 65 pupil (some were absent) questionnaires
and teacher questionnaires.
Findings:
We collected the data and then entered it from the questionnaires on to an excel
spreadsheet and worked out the averages (see graphs below).
Note that year 7s average enjoyment of chemistry is 4.3 while year 8s is 2.4 and year
9s is 3.2.
Year 8
Year 7
5.0
5.0
4.3
3.4
4.0
3.5
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
physics
easy
2.0
enjoy
physics
2.0
biology
easy
2.5
enjoy
biology
2.5
chemistry
easy
3.0
enjoy
chemistry
3.0
2.8
2.4
2.3
Graph 1
Year 9
5
4.5
4.5
3.3
2.9
3.0
3.1
2.2
Teachers
4.6
4
4.0
3.2
2.5
Graph 2
5.0
3.4
3.5
2.8
2.6
3.6
3
2.8
3
3
Graph 3
physics
easy
physics
easy
enjoy
physics
0
biology
easy
0.0
enjoy
biology
0.5
chemistry
easy
1
0.5
enjoy
chemistry
1.0
enjoy
physics
1.5
biology
easy
2
1.5
enjoy
biology
2.0
chemistry
easy
2.5
2.5
enjoy
chemistry
3.5
2.3
physics
easy
3.5
enjoy
physics
3.3
biology
easy
3.5
3.3
enjoy
biology
3.4
chemistry
easy
4.0
4.5
enjoy
chemistry
4.5
Graph 4
Analysis:
The averages suggest that the average year 7 enjoys chemistry the most (graph 1).
Graph 2 shows that the average year 8 prefers biology just like graph 3 shows that the
average year 9 prefers biology and chemistry. In year 8 all of the three subjects
enjoyment averages are around the same value –from 2.8 (the highest) to 2.2 (the
lowest) – we thought it was unusually low compared to year 7s chemistry enjoyment
average stands out among the rest seeing as it is 4.3! Although the other two subjects:
biology and physics are around the same value. Year 9s enjoyment averages are
around the same value- 3.1 slightly higher than year 8s but no where near as high as
year 7s.
Conclusions:
We think that year 7s enjoy chemistry the most because after moving from primary
school they’re not used to doing experiments so it seems very exciting, we also tended
to find that in most of the years that did the questionnaires the children liked ‘blowing
things up’, so to enjoy the phenomenon of chemistry we think there should be more
dangerous demonstrations to excite the children and keep their appetite for learning
more in chemistry going. “Its much better to do something to learn about it than to
have someone show you something to learn about it.” As in year8 you start to tire of
the same sorts of experiments that only you are allowed to do, so you never really see
the dangerous exciting bits of chemistry it gets its reputation from. And then maybe
this will make the children ‘wow’ more and persuade them into wanting to know what
chemistry is like once you have got the basics figured out, and then the higher up in
the school you go the more of the exciting mind boggling things you get to do. But of
course you have to explain and tell them or ask them what they think is actually
happening afterwards.
We also found out that year 8s and year 9s enjoy physics (see graph 2 and 3)
the least because it only gets interesting at a later stage in education: “Physics is a
really odd subject, it’s incredibly fascinating, but to find it…but it only gets incredibly
fascinating at about A level and University level. And then it gets – you know things
start blowing your mind – its amazing, seriously, I can’t, I mean you’re probably just
sitting there thinking ‘yeah whatever’ but it is absolutely fascinating some of the stuff
that physicists do and the things… you know … and the way atoms and sub–atomic…
particles smaller than atoms behave is just mind boggling, but the problem with
physics is the stuff that we teach at school in physics isn’t as interesting, but it’s, but
you don’t need as much, you need to have an awful lot of knowledge about physics
before it gets really exciting. And I find that’s a bit of a barrier to physics and I think,
I genuinely think that pupils don’t enjoy physics as much because its not, at this level,
at school level, key stage 3, key stage 4, its not as interesting because we, because its
just a bit too complicated.” (See graph 3).
The teachers enjoyment of teaching depended on what subject they taught for
example: “I’m a chemistry teacher … I understand chemistry the most and I find it the
most interesting out of the three… and I think because I’ve got a lot of knowledge
about it’ because I know a lot about chemistry, I think that I can make it very
interesting to teach and I can teach it well and that makes me enjoy teaching it and I
think it makes the kids enjoy learning it” (see graph 4). This reflected on the children
because the more enthusiastic teachers tend to make things ‘stick in your brain.’
The data might not be very accurate because even though we explained what
each subject (biology, chemistry, and physics) involved pupils in year 7 and 8, they
may not fully understand the differences between each one because the subjects are
not taught individually until year 9.
If anyone wants to follow this question up then we think possible lines to go
down would be why students prefer chemistry to physics and biology and which one
out of demonstrations and experiments are most important to learn from and whether
anything else effects the attention, concentration and learning span of different aged
children and teenagers.