Presenting wicked problems in a science museum: A methodology to study interest from a dynamic perspective

Science centers and science museums have an important social role in engaging people with science and technology relevant for complex societal problems—so called wicked problems. We used the case of personalized medicine to illustrate a methodology that can be used to inform the development of exhibitions on such wicked problems. The methodology that is presented is grounded in dynamic theories of interest development that define interest as a multidimensional construct involving knowledge, behavior (personal and general) value, self-efficacy, and emotion. The methodology uses a mixed method design that is able to (1) study the predictive effects of background variables on interest, (2) study the interest dimensions predicting individual interest, and (3) identify the most influential interest dimensions. We set up focus groups (N = 16, age = 20–74, low SES) to design a survey study (N = 341, age 19–89 years olds with a broad range of SES) about people’s interest in personalized medicine. Results of a network analysis of the survey data show that despite the variety in emotions and knowledge about subtopics, these dimensions do not play a central role in the multidimensional interest construct. In contrast, general value and behavior (related to understanding scientific research) seem to be interesting candidates for eliciting situational interest that could have an effect on the more long term individual interest. These results are specific for the case of personalized medicine. We discuss ways in which results of studies with the presented methodology might be useful for exhibition development

Exploring the dynamics of situated expectancy-value theory: A panel network analysis

Students' competence beliefs and task values are proximal psychological predictors of their achievement-related choices and academic achievement. Situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT) suggests that these beliefs are situationally sensitive and interact over short periods of time. In the present study, we explored the dynamic nature of students' situation-specific expectancy-value beliefs in five sections of an introductory calculus course across one semester (11 weeks, N = 429). Using psychometric network analysis, we examined how facets of the SEVT framework are related between persons (i.e., between-person network), within situations (i.e., within-person contemporaneous network), and from one time point to the next across one semester (i.e., within-person temporal network). Results suggested that differences existed among motivational constructs across the three networks in that costs and positively-valenced facets of motivation (i.e., competence and values) were relatively independent of each other within a given situation, but showed some significant cross-lagged effects over time. Our results suggest that interventions to support students in STEM should target positively and negatively valenced constructs (i.e., values and costs)