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Educational psychologists Jennifer Schmidt and M Cecil Smith were recently awarded a research grant from the National Science Foundation to study the way that high school students feel when they are engaged in the day-to-day activities that take place in science classrooms.
Beginning in late October 2008, and continuing through spring 2009 , the research team headed by Schmidt and Smith will be spending time in twelve different science classrooms from a single suburban high school. While they are there, they will be observing and videotaping science instruction to get a sense of what goes on in science classrooms on a daily basis. They will also interview teachers about their science practices.
In addition to these activities, they will gather data about the students’ perspectives on their classroom activities using an innovative method called the Experience Sampling Method (or ESM). Students in the classroom will carry silent pagers that will silently signal them – just like a vibrating cell phone -- at random moments twice per day for a period of 5 days. When the students are signaled they will complete a brief questionnaire to indicate their in-the-moment actions, thoughts, and feelings.
Data from this study will offer an unprecedented glimpse into students’ experiences in high school science classrooms, and will document how students feel in response to different types of instructional practices, curricular topics, and courses, such as biology and chemistry. The goal of the study is to identify the conditions that are most engaging for both male and female students in high school science classrooms.