Students’ views of science can become more negative as they move from middle to high school and as their exposure to inquiry-based methods of teaching science decreases. As greater emphasis is placed on the need for more science literacy in a U.S. society and knowledge-based economy, greater emphasis also needs to be placed on understanding how increased use of inquiry-based instructional practices influence students’ affect towards science. Research on the affective domain of middle and high school students—how they feel, their motivation, and what they believe—can give valuable insight into maintaining student interest in science and facilitating their success in science classrooms. This study focuses on students’ affect in classrooms associated with Target Inquiry (TI), a 2.5-year professional development program at Grand Valley State University and Miami University aimed at increasing middle and high school teachers’ use of inquiry in their classrooms. We used the Students’ Adaptive Learning Engagement in Science (SALES) Questionnaire with the four subscales of self-efficacy, task value, self-regulation, and learning goal orientation, to track student affect as their teachers progressed through TI. At the beginning (pre) and end (post) of each academic year, the SALES was administered. Pre- and post-SALES data, along with data related to students’ reasoning skills and conceptual understanding were collected over two years from the teacher cohorts from each TI site. Analyses yield relationships among the SALES subscales and students’ changing conceptual understanding and reasoning skills. Results as well as implications for teaching, professional development, and research will be presented.

Describing and characterizing the affective domain in middle and high school science students

249th National Meeting (2015)

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