PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Dissections are one way to implement methods of scientific inquiry and potentially interesting hands-on biology education. However, perceived disgust during dissections may compromise students’ interest. Videos and anatomic models are alternatives that are probably less disgusting as there is no contact with dead material. In the current study, we examined the influence of these common teaching-methods and the disgust on students’ psychological state of interest. In contrast to prior studies, we used a multidimensional conceptualisation of interest by distinguishing into the value-related, cognitive, and emotional components of the psychological state of interest. The sample consisted of 195 students (14.17±1.02 years, 50% female) from two different German secondary schools. The students attended a two-hour teaching unit about the anatomy of mammalian eyes. One group dissected a pig’s eye (n=82), one watched a video of a dissection (n=58), and one group worked with an anatomic model (n=55). Multivariate Analysis of Variance with the two factors treatment (dissection, video, and anatomic model) and disgust regarding dissections (low, medium, high disgust) revealed several meaningful findings. First, we found significant differences between the treatments in favour of the dissections regarding the cognitive and partly the emotional component of interest. However, the second main-effect revealed that students’ who were highly disgusted by dissections showed less interest in terms of the value-related and the emotional component. Furthermore, we found significant interaction-effects regarding the value-related and emotional components of interest. This indicates that the three treatments had different effects on the psychological state of interest depending on the disgust regarding dissections. Consequently, dissecting animal organs does not generally compromise students’ interest although it is a potentially disgusting learning activity. Disgust is an important factor that should be considered as well.