The Inspire project tested and analyzed the use of digital Learning resources (LR) in the field of Maths, Science and Technology (MST) in 63 schools in Austria, Germany, Italy, Lithuania and Spain. MST teachers used the LR from a pool of 60 resources (12 for Physics) in class and the effects on teachers and 5–18+ year old students were measured. We found the use of LR increases the understanding of students of MST and allows for differentiated learning within a class. LR have a larger impact on boys than girls, and it decreases with age. Overall, it appears the use of LR has a positive impact on MST education but special attention has to be placed on technical requirements and localization of the LR

Beernaert, Y.

Gras-Velázquez, À.

Hofer, M.

Joyce, A.

Kirsch, M.

Kulnigg, E.

Kurilovas, E.

Müller, M.

Obermüller, M.

Plöger, R.

Serikoviene, S.

Snellman, J.

Zistler, E.

English

Scientific Open-access Literature Archive and Repository

DOI 10.1393/ncc/i2010-10617-xColloquia: MPTL14IL NUOVO CIMENTO Vol. 33 C, N. 3 Maggio-Giugno 2010Inspire: Challenging the lack of interest in physics among studentsA`. Gras-Vela´zquez(1), A. Joyce(1), J. Snellman(1), M. Kirsch(2),Y. Beernaert(2), M. Hofer(3), E. Zistler(3), M. Obermu¨ller(3),E. Kulnigg(3), E. Kurilovas(4), S. Serikoviene(4), M. Mu¨ller(5)and R. Plo¨ger(5)(1) European Schoolnet - Belgium(2) Educonsult VOF - Belgium(3) Bundesministerium fu¨r Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur - Austria(4) Sˇvietimo informaciniu¸ technologiju¸ centras - Lithuania(5) Thu¨r. Institut fu¨r Lehrerfortbildung, Lehrplanentwicklung und Medien - Germany(ricevuto il 30 Novembre 2009; pubblicato online il 23 Luglio 2010)Summary. — The Inspire project tested and analyzed the use of digital learningresources (LR) in the field of Maths, Science and Technology (MST) in 63 schoolsin Austria, Germany, Italy, Lithuania and Spain. MST teachers used the LR from apool of 60 resources (12 for Physics) in class and the effects on teachers and 5–18+year old students were measured. We found the use of LR increases the understand-ing of students of MST and allows for differentiated learning within a class. LR havea larger impact on boys than girls, and it decreases with age. Overall, it appearsthe use of LR has a positive impact on MST education but special attention has tobe placed on technical requirements and localization of the LR.PACS 01.50.-i – Educational aids.PACS 01.50.F- – Audio and visual aids.1. – IntroductionIt is believed that the use of learning resources (LR) increases students’ motivationin Math, Science and Technology (MST) by providing them with visual, and usuallyinteractive, representations of the topics discussed. Although their benefits are widelyassumed or even accepted, little research exists on actual proof of an increase in interestfrom students and teachers specifically as a direct result of the use of LR in class (Kay& Knaack 2008).To address this issue, the Inspire (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Edu-cation) project (Inspire 2007), set up a validation observatory where 63 schools in Europeused, tested and analyzed the use of LR in the field of MST during a defined period oftime. Through this experimentation, special attention was given to the impact of thesec© Societa` Italiana di Fisica 103104 A`. GRAS-VELA´ZQUEZ, A. JOYCE, J. SNELLMAN, ETC.LR at the level of pupils and their motivation, the analysis of the pre-requisites to bedefined for enabling the teachers to integrate them in their pedagogy and the critical suc-cess factors to be mastered at the level of the teacher and the school for the generalizationof such practices (Kearney C., Gras-Vela´zquez, A` & Joyce A., 2009).The testing was carried out in 63 schools in Austria (24), Germany (19), Lithuania(10), Italy (5) and Spain (5). More than 200 teachers used a selection of LearningResources (LR) in their classes. Over 4100 students were surveyed before and after thepilot tests to measure the LR’s impact on students’ motivation. Additionally, teachersprovided input on the characteristics and formats LR must have for their integration inthe normal class lessons. Aspects like languages, LR technical formats and other issueswere analyzed. Results were also analyzed taking into account the subject in which theLR was integrated, in particular in Physics classes.2. – The protocol of experimentationThe experimentation consisted of two aspects: a well-defined selection of LR to beused for the testing in all five countries and a set of questionnaires to be to be filled inat the different stages of the Inspire activities: the preparation, the implementation, thefollow-up and monitoring, the evaluation, documenting the activities, the disseminationor valorization.2.1. The Inspire questionnaires. – 26 questionnaires were designed to be filled by thedifferent actors: the school coordinator, the MST teachers, the pupils and the nationalcoordinator. They were all provided both as downloadable pdfs and either Google formsor spreadsheets, depending on the format of the questionnaire(1) and were designedmainly as closed questions (multi-choice/rating questions).The questionnaires provided information on: 1. The schools characteristics and poli-cies (according to the school coordinator/head master); 2. The teachers’ views and usesof the Inspire LR and ICT in general (filled in by the participating teachers); 3. Theimpact of the use of LR on the pupils (both from the teachers’ point of view and the stu-dents’); and 4. The organization of the piloting (filled in by the national coordinators).More specifically, a form on the use of each LR by the teachers had to be filled in beforeand after using it, and both teachers and pupils were asked to fill in questionnaires on theexpected impact or interest in MST before the use of the Inspire LR and after the actualimpact and interest once they were used (teachers on the impact on both themselves andtheir pupils and students only on themselves).2.2. Physics Learning Resources. – To be able to compare the effect of using LR inscience classes on the interest of students in MST across 5 different countries, it wasimportant to have all schools use the same resources. To allow at the same time somefreedom for teachers to choose the LR that best fitted their curricula and personal teach-ing style, there had to be a few resources per subject to choose from. 60 resources wereselected according 3 main criteria. The selected LR had to be scientifically correct; ap-propriate for students between 5 to 21 years old and that would travel well, ie usable byteachers with different curricula and languages (Gras-Vela´zquez, A`. & Joyce, A. 2008a).(1) All the Inspire questionnaires can be found at http://inspire.eun.org/index.php/AllFormsINSPIRE: CHALLENGING THE LACK OF INTEREST IN PHYSICS AMONG STUDENTS 105Table I. – Inspire Physics Learning Resources(2).LR ID Subcategory Title Author en ca de es it ltP1-5-1 KinematicsDistance-David Harrison√ √ √displacementP2-5-2 KinematicsMotion with constantWalter Fendt√ √ √ √accelerationNational Council ofP3-5-3 Sound Changing sounds Teachers of√Mathematics, USAP4-5-4 DynamicsConservation of B. Surendranath √Energy ReddyP1-13-5 Electricity Ohm’s law Walter Fendt√ √ √ √P2-13-6 Optics Reflection-refraction David Harrison√ √ √P3-13-7 Mechanics Galilean relativity Physics@UNSW√P4-13-8NuclearRadioactive decay David Rea√PhysicsP1-17-9 Oscillations Beats Walter Fendt√P2-17-10 DynamicsForces on aDavid Harrison√ √ √pendulumP3-17-11 Relativity Time dilation Joakim Linde√P4-17-12 OpticsYoung’s Double Slit B. Surendranath √Experiment Reddy12 resources were selected per subject and categorized under: Physics, Chemistry, Biol-ogy, Mathematics and Informatics (IT). The topics covered by the Physics resources canbe found in table I.When available, links to the resources in the different languages of the pilot schoolswere provided. In table I, we indicate the languages the resources were available in. Allresources were available in English (en), while some also in Catalan (ca), German (de),Spanish (es) and Italian (it). None were available in Lithuanian (lt). To facilitate theuse of the LR in non-local languages, a list of the basic vocabulary used by each LR andits translation to all the Inspire languages was provided (Gras-Vela´zquez, A`. & Joyce, A.2008b).3. – The participating schools, teachers and pupilsA few characteristics of the 63 pilot schools:– 74% of them were Secondary schools (13–21 years old), 11% Primary schools, 11%Vocational schools and 5% Pre-educational schools (3-6 years old).(2) The URLs of the Physics LR can be found at http://inspire.eun.org/index.php/Learning Objects.106 A`. GRAS-VELA´ZQUEZ, A. JOYCE, J. SNELLMAN, ETC.– 72% were particularly interested in ICT, having a specific strategy to promote ICTin as many subjects as possible.– Especially Lithuanian and Austrian schools had a lot of expertise as far as ICTis concerned while Spanish schools were fairly inexperienced. Nevertheless, allSpanish teachers involved in the project had experience in ICT, even if their schoolsdid not.– A total of 220 teachers filled in the questionnaires before the use of the LR, while190 teachers completed the piloting. The drop-out of participation among teacherswas due in general to difficulties in the use of the LR in classes, language issuesand miss match of experience and resources available. The ratios per country(start/finish) were: 75/59 (AT), 63/52 (DE), 52/52 (LT), 21/16 (IT) and 11/11(ES).– A total of 4051 students filled in the initial questionnaire on their interest in MSTwhile 3411 students responded to the questionnaire on Impact of the LR on theMST lessons and interest after the tests. The ratios per country (start/finish) in thecase of students were: 1897/1641 (AT), 1599/1254 (DE), 182/182 (LT), 260/182(IT) and 113/152 (ES).– Out of the 4049 valid student responses, 2059 were male students and 1990 femalestudents.– The majority of pupils worked on their own (40%), while 33% in pairs and 12%in large groups. The remaining pupils worked partially in each of the previousdistributions.4. – ResultsAll the data obtained has been analyzed and will be published in a series of reports:Kirsch & Beernaert (2009a), Kirsch & Beernaert (2009b) and Gras-Vela´zquez, et al.(2009). The main results are discussed in the following subsections.4.1. Assessment of the Physics learning resources. – The LR were used 904 times.All the LR from the Inspire selection were assessed and used at least ten times bythe Lithuanian teachers. The use of the LR per category was practically equally split,teachers using the Physics resources 183 times. The most popular Physics LR were P4-5-4 and P2-17-10, used 22 and 21 times respectively. Also P2-13-6 (used 19 times) andP3-5-3 (used 18 times) were very popular. The least popular LR were P1-17-9, P3-13-7and P4-13-8 only used 11 times. If the Lithuanian entries are removed, the differences inuse are even more striking, with P4-5-4 and P2-17-10, being chosen by the teachers fortheir classes 19% and 17% of the times correspondingly, compared to the one use of theleast liked LR.As seen in fig. 1, the main criterion for choosing the particular Physics LR was thefact that the topic was part of the normal curriculum. This result matches the results forall subjects, where 79% chose a LR because it concerns a topic that is part of the normalcurriculum in MST. Around three quarters of the teachers also selected LR because ittook into account the ICT expertise of the teachers (75%) and of the pupils (74%) andbecause it clearly combines MST with ICT.INSPIRE: CHALLENGING THE LACK OF INTEREST IN PHYSICS AMONG STUDENTS 107Fig. 1. – Selection criteria for the Physics resources. Bars represent percentage of teachers whotook into account each criteria for selecting a resource to use in class.4.2. Assessment of the impact of the use of learning resources in class according toteachers. – When the teachers assessed the impact of the LR after having used them,they stated that they noticed the LR had the highest impact on the autonomous learningof the pupils. Additionally,– Nearly three quarters of the teachers found that the LR stimulated their owninterest and motivation for teaching MST.– 70% said the LR increased the pupils’ understanding and use of ICT in general.– Around two thirds of the teachers noticed that the LR stimulated pupils’ interestand motivation for learning MST (67%).– They also experienced that thanks to the LR their own interest for teaching MSTusing LR increased (66%) and that the LR facilitated differentiated teaching ofsciences in the classroom (64%).– 54% of the teachers experienced that the LR helped link science to everyday lifemore easily.– 52% that they made the pupils better understand tests and experiments carriedout in labs or develop pupils’ ability to use scientific methods.Teachers from all countries, except Lithuania, felt it difficult to integrate LR in theirclasses which were not in their local language. Teachers from Spain and Italy, specially,also found the technical constraints to be against the use of the LR (lack of access tocomputer labs or Internet).4.3. Assessment of the impact of the use of learning resources in class among pupils.– The final survey on the appreciation of the impact on MST after the use of the LR bythe students was filled out by 3403 pupils, 1740 boys and 1663 girls. In fig. 2 we show theanswers of students who agreed with the statements versus the responses of the pupils108 A`. GRAS-VELA´ZQUEZ, A. JOYCE, J. SNELLMAN, ETC.Fig. 2. – Impact of using LR on the students. Bars represent percentage of students who saidyes/no to each statement. Dotted bars represent “no” answers. Filled bars represent positiveanswers.who stated that there was no impact at all. The missing answers which correspond to“undecided” are not included.The results shown in fig. 2 were also analyzed according to gender, age, country andamount of LR used during the piloting. The main results found are:– LR had a major impact in pupils regarding better understanding and learning MSTand making it easier to integrate and remember what pupils have learned;– LR seemed to have a greater impact on boys than on girls;– The impact of the learning objects decreases with the age, specially among femalestudents;– For virtually all items surveyed the impact perceived by the Lithuanian and Spanishpupils, followed by the Italian students, is considerably higher than the impactperceived by the Austrian and German students;– No real impact could be noticed as far as the number of LR that were used.5. – ConclusionsWe have found the use of LR in MST classes increases the understanding of studentsof MST. Additionally, it allows for differentiated learning with a class. The use of LRhas a larger impact among boys than girls, and decreases with age. The drop off ismore acute among girls perhaps due to increased pressure of gender stereotypes (Gras-Vela´zquez, Joyce & Debry, 2009). Overall, it appears the use of LR has a positive impacton MST education but special attention has to be placed on technical requirements andlocalization of the LR.∗ ∗ ∗The authors wish to thank P. Ronchi, U. Klemm, B. Mart´ınez and K. Leitl,and all the teachers and students who took part in the tests and the Inspire summerINSPIRE: CHALLENGING THE LACK OF INTEREST IN PHYSICS AMONG STUDENTS 109school for their collaboration in the Inspire project. This project would not have beenpossible without them. The Inspire project has been funded with support from theEuropean Commission, under the Education & Training, Comenius Lifelong learningprogram. This paper reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannotbe held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.REFERENCESGras-Vela´zquez, A`. & Joyce, A. (2008a) Inspire Deliverable D.2.3 Quality criteria andanalysis of LOs in MST, ConfidentialGras-Vela´zquez, A`. & Joyce, A. (2008b) Inspire Deliverable D.2.2 List of Learning Ob-jects, To be publishedGras-Vela´zquez, A`., Joyce, A. & Debry, M. (2009) Women and ICT, Why are girlsstill not attracted to ICT studies and careers? Cisco White paper, http://eun.org/whitepaperGras-Vela´zquez, A`., Joyce, A., Hoffer, M., Kirsch M., Beernaert, Y., Snellman, J.,Zistler, E., Szallai, M., Kulnigg, E., Kurilovas, E., Serikoviene, S., Mu¨ller, M. &Plo¨ger, R. (2009), Inspire: Motivating Students for Maths, Science & Technology, In-sight report November 2009 Available at: http://inspire.eun.org/images/2/22/Inspire Report final-insight-report.pdfKay, R. & Knaack, L. (2008) Investigating the Use of Learning Objects for SecondarySchool Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects,Vol.4, 2008Kearney C., Gras-Vela´zquez, A` & Joyce A., (2009) Stimulating teachers’ and students’engagement in science education through the use of ICT-based tools and involvementin inquiry-based European projects, Stella Handbook on Innovative Practices, Availablefrom Oct 2009 from http://stella-science.euKirsch, M. & Beernaert, Y. (2009a), Inspire Deliverable D.4.1 Report of the experimen-tation in each of the 3 pilots, In preparationKirsch, M. & Beernaert, Y. (2009b), Inspire Deliverable D4.2 Final report and consoli-dated report on the 3 pilots, In preparationInspire (2007) Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education project,http://inspire.eun.org, accessed 2009 August

Inspire: Challenging the lack of interest in physics among students

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