Resumen de Less interested after lessons? Report on a small-scale research study into 12- to 13-year-old students' attitudes to earth science

Lindsay Hetherington

• Results of a small-scale research study conducted with year 8 (ages 12-13) students suggest that although these students have generally positive attitudes towards earth science, girls tend to be less interested in it than boys. Interest in earth science was found to separate into two dominant factors, labelled 'scientific' and 'people and change', with the greatest gender discrepancy for the scientific factor. Results also showed that interest decreased after studying 'The rock cycle' topic. It is suggested that this could result from students' perception of repetition in the curriculum: greater cross-curricular communication in the new key stage 3 (ages 11-14) curriculum may help to address this