The effects of the use of video clips and academic conversation on student engagement and achievement in eighth grade science

Abstract

In this investigation, video clips were coupled with academic conversations with the purpose of improving student engagement and achievement in an eighth grade science class. Students were shown video clips from popular media sources to encourage interest in basic chemistry, then academic conversations were conducted based on what was shown in the clips. Though performance on summative assessments did not show that students who participated in the study had greater basic chemistry content knowledge than the comparison group, students expressed positive attitudes toward learning when video clips were incorporated into science lessons.