Becoming (less) scientific: A longitudinal study of students' identity work from elementary to middle school science

Students' declining science interest in middle school is often attributed to psychological factors like shifts of motivational values, decrease in self-efficacy, or doubts about the utility of schooling in general. This paper adds to accounts of the middle school science problem through an ethnographic, longitudinal case study of three diverse students' identity work from fourth- to sixth-grade school science. Classroom observations and...