'Pluto has been a planet my whole life!' : emotions, attitudes, and conceptual change in elementary students' learning about Pluto's reclassification

Learning about certain scientific topics has potential to spark strong emotions among students. The authors investigated whether emotions predicted students' attitudes after engaging in independent rereading and/or rereading plus discussion about Pluto's reclassification. Fifth and sixth grade students enrolled in a private school located in the western United States read a refutation text on Pluto's reclassification. Participants were randomly assigned to either the reread independently or the reread plus discussion group. Results showed that students in both groups experienced attitude change and that change was sustained over time. Students reported experiencing more negative than positive emotions at pre-test. Emotions, which became more positive after intervention, were predictive of students' attitudes and attitude change. Implications for the role of emotions when learning about controversial topics are discussed. [Author abstract, ed]