An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science
Much is known about high school students’ attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australi...
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2011
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27847/ |
| _version_ | 1848793454641938432 |
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| author | Oliver, Mary Venville, Grady |
| author_facet | Oliver, Mary Venville, Grady |
| author_sort | Oliver, Mary |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Much is known about high school students’ attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australian Science Olympiad (n=69) to explore their attitudes towards school science and science as presented in the Olympiad summer camp. In particular the role the summer camp might play in igniting the students’ passion for science was a focus of the research. Data were collected through a two tiered survey of students’ attitudes towards school science, an evaluative survey of the Olympiad summer camp and in-depth interviews with six participants. Findings indicated that Olympiad students generally had positive attitudes towards school science with most selecting science as one of their favourite subjects. However, an underlying ambivalence about school science was noted in the data. In contrast, the Olympiad summer camp transformed students’ positive attitudes into passion for science. Seven themes emerged from the data providing a foundation for a model of what academic passion for science looks like. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:00:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-27847 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:00:33Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-278472020-05-04T16:30:33Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27847/ An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science Oliver, Mary Venville, Grady Much is known about high school students’ attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australian Science Olympiad (n=69) to explore their attitudes towards school science and science as presented in the Olympiad summer camp. In particular the role the summer camp might play in igniting the students’ passion for science was a focus of the research. Data were collected through a two tiered survey of students’ attitudes towards school science, an evaluative survey of the Olympiad summer camp and in-depth interviews with six participants. Findings indicated that Olympiad students generally had positive attitudes towards school science with most selecting science as one of their favourite subjects. However, an underlying ambivalence about school science was noted in the data. In contrast, the Olympiad summer camp transformed students’ positive attitudes into passion for science. Seven themes emerged from the data providing a foundation for a model of what academic passion for science looks like. Taylor & Francis Group 2011-04-21 Article PeerReviewed Oliver, Mary and Venville, Grady (2011) An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science. International Journal of Science Education, 33 (16). pp. 2295-2322. ISSN 0950-0693 Passion Olympiad Science http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500693.2010.550654 doi:10.1080/09500693.2010.550654 doi:10.1080/09500693.2010.550654 |
| spellingShingle | Passion Olympiad Science Oliver, Mary Venville, Grady An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| title | An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| title_full | An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| title_fullStr | An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| title_full_unstemmed | An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| title_short | An exploratory case study of Olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| title_sort | exploratory case study of olympiad students’ attitudes towards and passion for science |
| topic | Passion Olympiad Science |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27847/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27847/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/27847/ |