Forma mentis networks quantify crucial differences in STEM perception between students and experts

Massimo Stella; Sarah de Nigris; Aleksandra Aloric; Cynthia S Q Siew

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0222870

Forma mentis networks quantify crucial differences in STEM perception between students and experts

PLoS One. 2019 Oct 17;14(10):e0222870. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222870. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Massimo Stella^{1

2}, Sarah de Nigris³, Aleksandra Aloric⁴, Cynthia S Q Siew^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Complex Systems Simulation, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
² Complex Science Consulting, Lecce, Italy.
³ Institute for Web Science and Technologies, University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz, Germany.
⁴ Scientific Computing Laboratory, Center for the Study of Complex Systems, Institute of Physics Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
⁶ Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

Abstract

In order to investigate how high school students and researchers perceive science-related (STEM) subjects, we introduce forma mentis networks. This framework models how people conceptually structure their stance, mindset or forma mentis toward a given topic. In this study, we build forma mentis networks revolving around STEM and based on psycholinguistic data, namely free associations of STEM concepts (i.e., which words are elicited first and associated by students/researchers reading "science"?) and their valence ratings concepts (i.e., is "science" perceived as positive, negative or neutral by students/researchers?). We construct separate networks for (Ns = 159) Italian high school students and (Nr = 59) interdisciplinary professionals and researchers in order to investigate how these groups differ in their conceptual knowledge and emotional perception of STEM. Our analysis of forma mentis networks at various scales indicate that, like researchers, students perceived "science" as a strongly positive entity. However, differently from researchers, students identified STEM subjects like "physics" and "mathematics" as negative and associated them with other negative STEM-related concepts. We call this surrounding of negative associations a negative emotional aura. Cross-validation with external datasets indicated that the negative emotional auras of physics, maths and statistics in the students' forma mentis network related to science anxiety. Furthermore, considering the semantic associates of "mathematics" and "physics" revealed that negative auras may originate from a bleak, dry perception of the technical methodology and mnemonic tools taught in these subjects (e.g., calculus rules). Overall, our results underline the crucial importance of emphasizing nontechnical and applied aspects of STEM disciplines, beyond purely methodological teaching. The quantitative insights achieved through forma mentis networks highlight the necessity of establishing novel pedagogic and interdisciplinary links between science, its real-world complexity, and creativity in science learning in order to enhance the impact of STEM education, learning and outreach activities.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Achievement
Adolescent
Adult
Female
Humans
Italy
Learning*
Male
Mathematics
Physics
Science*
Students / psychology*
Young Adult

Grants and funding

M.S. was supported by an EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre grant (EP/G03690X/1). Official website: https://epsrc.ukri.org/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Complex Science Consulting provided support in the form of salaries for author M.S., but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.