Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Department of Biology

 
Helmut Vogt, Annette Upmeier zu Belzen
Project PEIG
Influences by Persons on the Development of Interest of Primary School Students in and out-of School with special Regard to Scientific Contents

 

In a longitudinal study, students which have already been interviewed with regard to their individual interests before school shall be accompanied from primary school to secondary school in terms of their development of interest/disinterest by selective inquiries. This study especially analyzes whether the teacher interest and his teaching structure correspond to the development of student interest. Simultaneously the influence of parents on their children will be investigated.
The theoretical frame is given by a model based on the ‘Interessentheorie’ by SCHIEFELE et al. (1983) and KRAPP (1992b) separating between passive and active disinterest.

Students who have developed a person-object relation even before school are expected to be able to build up new relationships easier than comparable children. By a way of teaching designed according to methodical and didactical principles, students should be given the opportunity to turn their disinterest into interest. A positive attitude towards school should support this process.
This study demands for interdisciplinary considerations of student interest and its findings shall be implemented in a model from which scripts for scientific and interdisciplinary teaching can be derived.