Informative Narratives Enhance Topic Interest in Learners With Lower Need for Cognition

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Motivation in Education SIG Poster Session: Motivation in STEM Contexts

Abstract

We investigated whether informative narratives that present conceptual information within a storyline enhance topic interest compared with expository texts. An experiment revealed that informative narratives had no general effect on topic interest compared with expository texts. However, participants with a lower need for cognition generated a higher interest from informative narratives than from expository texts. In case of the informative narratives, it was furthermore unveiled that the lower need for cognition resulted in a stronger transportation into the storyline of these text than a higher need for cognition, which then produced a higher interest. Therefore, informative narratives are a fruitful instructional method, in particular for learners with a less optimal motivational disposition, to encounter low topic interest in science education.

Authors

• Stefanie Golke, University of Freiburg

• Joerg Wittwer, University of Freiburg