Subjective value and emotions towards the use of Chemistry in a active interdisciplinary practice

Abstract

Students experience a growing rejection of Chemistry. According to educational research, it is necessary to revert this aversion, since emotions and subjective values of students towards different academic activities interact with cognition, thus affecting their learning. It has been proposed that the implementation of practical activities, active approaches and interdisciplinary perspectives could revert this trend; however, it is still required to explore the effect of these methodologies in the affective domain. This research analyses the impact of an active interdisciplinary practice of Chemistry and Biology on the emotions and the subjective values self-reported by 112 pre-service Primary teachers towards interdisciplinary. Results support the motivating role of these approaches, since increase positive emotions, interest value and utility value; whereas decrease negative emotions and cost value. These variations occur mainly in the female subset, suggesting a gender bias in the impact of interdisciplinary active teaching on affective aspects towards Chemistry.