Situational Interest in the Active-Learning Classroom: A Microanalytic Measurement

• In Event: Assessment of Interest: New Approaches and New Insights

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate how situational interest develops during a one-day active-learning session and how it is related to academic achievement. The active-learning classroom is characterized by authentic learning tasks, collaborative learning, limited direct instruction from teachers, and self-initiated individual learning activities. We tested four hypotheses that predicted the developmental trajectories of situational interest, that is, (1) situational interest is stable during the learning event, (2) situational interest increases during the learning event, (3) situational interest decreases during the learning event, and (4) situational interest fluctuates during the learning event. The active-learning classroom was assumed to provide opportunities for triggering students’ situational interest and keeping them engaged during a longer period of time. In addition, it was assumed that prior knowledge plays a significant role in the trigger phase of situational interest, as well as predicting students’ subsequent academic achievement. Finally, it was hypothesized that achievement-related classroom behaviors is a necessary mediator between situational interest and academic achievement and that the variability of measures of situational interest during the learning event is a better predictor of academic achievement than an aggregate measure of situational interest.
Five measures of situational interest along with a measure of prior knowledge, achievement-related classroom behaviors, and academic achievement were collected from 69 tertiary students. The measures were administered before and directly after critical occasions throughout the learning event (e.g. before and after presentation of the problem).
The results revealed that situational interest increased significantly after the problem was presented. However, over the course of the day, students’ situational interest remained more or less stable, although the correlation of subsequent measures of situational interest with the initial measure tended to decrease. Based on these findings Hypothesis 4 was accepted, that is, situational interest fluctuates during the learning event. As such, situational interest did not develop in a linear fashion as the first three alternative Hypotheses predicted, but was influenced by contextual variations that influence a student’s affective reactions and attentional resources. Although just missing statistical significance (p = .056), the mean values suggest that after presentation of the problem students’ situational interest gradually decreased over the learning event. Moreover, the path analysis showed that the five measures of situational interest predicted each other with paths coefficients ranging from .69 to .77. There was a clear direction throughout the data, relating any measure of situational interest with its closest subsequent relative. When it comes to the effects of prior knowledge on situational interest, the results suggest that prior knowledge does not play a significant role in predicting students’ situational interest, but subsequent achievement. The findings of the path analysis also demonstrate the significant mediating effect of achievement-related classroom behaviors between situational interest and academic achievement. Finally, the findings of the study suggest that the different measures of situational interest better explained achievement-related classroom behaviors and academic achievement than an aggregate measure of it. Implications of these findings for the measurement of situational interest in a natural classroom setting are discussed.

Author

• Jerome I. Rotgans, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University