Teaching Nanotechnology Using Student-Centered Pedagogy for Increasing Students' Continuing Motivation

This paper presents a nanotechnology module that was designed for high-school students. A unique way to adapt advanced contents to high-school students’ level was applied by using constructivist pedagogy in which the students are at the center of the learning. Moving from teacher-centered to student-centered pedagogy switches the control of the learning environment from the teacher to the learners. Students’ interviews and a semantic differential (SD) questionnaire were used to learn about students’ motivation and their perceptions. The study shows that students appreciated the topic of LED and found that it increased their motivation to further learn about LED, nanotechnology, and chemistry. The student-centered pedagogy that was chosen also contributed to a positive effect regarding students’ continuing motivation.