Motivating students to endure teacher education and enter teaching is a pressing challenge in many countries. We address this challenge by exploring the concept of "situational interest" (SI) in teacher education and students' interest in teaching. Survey data was collected from Norwegian student teachers (N = 347) using a…

This study investigated the effect of the Jigsaw and Team-Pair Solo cooperative learning strategies on interest in Basic Science of primary school children with visual impairment. This is a pretest-posttest control group with a follow-up design study. A total of 56 students in Enugu State of Nigeria were randomized into one of two groups, n = 27…

Recently, the number of online courses provided for university students around the world has increased substantially. Instruction is delivered most commonly through either asynchronous video lectures (pre-recorded videos with no real-time communication) or synchronous video lectures (live-streamed videos with real-time communication). From a…

A new perspective on chemistry learning could be the optimal learning moment of view based on flow theory. Optimal learning moments (OLMs) that occur when students experience high levels of interest, challenge, and skill at the same time were investigated in this study. Participants of the study were 47 pre-service science teachers. Data were…

Retention of students' attention in general chemistry courses stands as one of the main challenges that educators are facing in classes of any size and is especially prevalent with classes composed of mixed majors. Herein, we describe our experience with introducing short, 10 min student lectures ("flash talks") on popular chemistry…

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, most courses at a large technical university were adapted so that students had a free choice of whether to attend lectures on-site or online; in addition, in many courses, lecture recordings were available. At the subsequent exam session, over 17,000 student-survey responses were collected regarding…

How do teachers elicit and sustain students' interest and engagement in science lessons? This paper answers this question in the context of Bhutan, where students' performance in science is low compared to other subjects, and where falling levels of interest in science are a concern. Like other countries in the Global South, a large proportion of…

Considerable research has examined the prevalence and apparent consequences of task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) in both laboratory and authentic educational settings. Few studies, however, have explored methods to reduce TUTs during learning; those few studies tested small samples or used unvalidated TUT assessments. The present experimental study…

Background: Fostering students' interest in careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is one of the main objectives of current education. However, stereotypical beliefs about STEM careers and their difficulty often exist among elementary and high school students, especially in Latin American countries where access to…

Flipped classroom in pharmacy education has been widely explored with a major focus on its effectiveness but little emphasis is given to assess the different in-class activities. Therefore, this work compares two in-class activities in an overall flipped classroom: analogical learning and team-based learning (TBL) for a pharmacy course. The…

Background: Previous studies have investigated effects of out-of-school STEM activities aimed at stimulating children's interest in science with positive results. However, research has not discussed the reasons why such activities are successful. Purpose: In this study, we address this gap by investigating which factors children themselves…

At large institutions of higher education, students frequently have a choice whether to attend the introductory physics sequence asynchronously online, on-site in a traditional lecture setting, or in a reformed studio setting. In this study, we investigate how these different settings are correlated with measures of self-efficacy, interest in…

This study aims: (1) to investigate the different motivations and perspectives for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that targeted attitudinal learning outcomes; and (2) to categorise learner profiles in regards to their perceived attitudinal learning gains. Seven hundred and ninety-six learners from three MOOCs participated in an…

The aim of this research was to check the effects of teacher's training and teaching methods on academic achievements and interests of students at secondary schools in computer course. The population was divided into four groups; lecture teaching method (control group), discussion teaching method (experimental method), inquiry teaching method…

Despite the contemporary emphasis on students' practical work, lecture demonstrations with their unique power to stimulate students' interest remain an inseparable part of physics education. At our faculty, performing physics demonstrations for upper secondary students (DEMOs) has a tradition lasting three decades. In our study, we sought to…