Elementary school students' perceptions of instrumentality, epistemic curiosity, and achievement emotions regarding life knowledge class

The aim of this research is to examine elementary school students' perceptions of instrumentality, epistemic curiosity, and achievement emotions towards the life knowledge class, along with the relationships between them. A convergent mixed-methods research design, one of the mixed research designs, was employed in the research. Accordingly, the qualitative phase was based on a descriptive phenomenological design, while the quantitative phase was based on an exploratory correlational design. The study involved 106 students enrolled in the first, second, and third grades of five public primary schools in the central district of Bolu province. The data were collected during the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year through semi-structured interviews conducted via online and synchronous focus group discussions. For the first and second research questions, content analysis and tetrachoric correlation analysis were carried out, respectively. Additional analyses were also conducted using Kruskal-Wallis H and Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner tests to investigate potential differences related to grade levels. All statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS 23, Mplus 8.3, and JAMOVI 2.4 programs. As a result of the content analyses, it was discerned that perceived instrumentality could be described through five themes, epistemic curiosity through 12 themes, and achievement emotions through seven themes. The results of the tetrachoric correlation analysis revealed that the themes related to perceived instrumentality, epistemic curiosity and achievement emotions for the life knowledge class were significantly and selectively related to each other. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis H and Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner tests demonstrated that the themes related to curiosity as a feeling of interest and themes concerning negative emotions felt at the end of the classes significantly differed for the first and second-grade students, while the themes related to curiosity as a feeling of deprivation and themes regarding positive emotions felt at the end of the classes significantly differed for the third-grade students.