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http://dx.doi.org/10.15267/keses.2021.40.2.175

The Effects of Interest in Thermal Concepts and the Perceived Task Difficulty on Science State Curiosity  

Kang, Jihoon (Dalsan Elementary School)
Kim, Jina (Pusan National University)
Publication Information
Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education / v.40, no.2, 2021 , pp. 175-190 More about this Journal
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find out how interest in thermal concepts and the perceived difficulty affect the stimulation of science state curiosity. To achieve this purpose, 410 elementary school students in 5th to 6th grade were asked to measure interest in the content of the thermal concept tasks, the perceived difficulty and science state curiosity while solving the thermal concept tasks. 2 (low interest vs. high interest)×2 (easy vs. difficult) ANCOVA was conducted with the covariate of the student's level of science curiosity, which is expected to affect the stimulation of science state curiosity. As a result of the analysis, students with high interest in the contents of the task were showed high science state curiosity. Meanwhile, there was no difference in the level of science state curiosity according to the perceived difficulty. In addition, science state curiosity level of the students with low interest in the content of the task were high when they perceived the task as easy, but science state curiosity level of the students with high interest in the content of the task were high when they perceived the task as difficult. This study was meaningful in that it empirically verified that interest in the content of the tasks has an effect on the stimulation of science state curiosity, and that the effect of interest on the stimulation of science state curiosity varies according to the level of the perceived difficulty.
Keywords
science state curiosity; science curiosity; interest; perceived difficulty; interaction effect;
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