Ecological stimuli predicting high school students’ genuine interest in socio-scientific issues

Existing literature attests to the importance of assessing the learning enjoyment and learning interest of students toward socio-scientific issues (SSI). However, there are few existing studies that examine how ecological stimuli, which are crucial to young learners’ perceptual development and the shaping of ethical judgment, predict their learning enjoyment and learning interest in SSI. This investigation addresses this gap in the available literature by investigating and assessing the effects of self-perceived influences of three ecological stimuli constructs—textbooks, family/classmates, and news media—on a learning interest in SSI construct and a learning enjoyment from SSI construct among Taiwanese high school students. A structural equation model consisting of these five constructs was fitted to data collected from 966 students. Results show that influence on students’ ethical judgments from textbooks and news media directly predict learning interest in SSI, with effects partially mediated by learning enjoyment from SSI. The influence of family/classmates on students’ learning interest was fully mediated by learning enjoyment. The role of enjoyment and learning interest as predictors of these outcomes is discussed within the context of genuine interest in learning SSI content. The value and implications of these results for science education specialists and interest researchers are forwarded and suggested directions of future investigation submitted.