Influences on classroom interest

Theories of interest and motivation give little specific advice to teachers regarding curriculum decisions about how to attract interest in classroom activities. Although educators should keep in mind the fact that attempts to enhance interest can be irrelevant to learning, and may even undermine learning, promoting interest can enhance learning if applied appropriately; therefore, educators could benefit from understanding factors that predict and enhance interest. In this article, I discuss individual and situational factors that influence interest. The individual factors are belongingness (which includes cultural value, identification, and social support), emotions, competence, utility-goal relevance, and background knowledge (which includes a hole in the schema). The situational factors are hands-on, discrepancy, novelty, food, social interaction (which includes visible author), modeling, games and puzzles, content, biophilia, fantasy, humor, and narrative. To the degree that teachers integrate these factors into their instruction, their students are likely to experience increased interest and learning.