Interest-Driven Creator Theory Research Articles

Digital information literacy, self-directed learning, and personal knowledge management in critical readers: Application of IDC Theory

The usefulness of self-directed learning ability in education has been demonstrated in previous studies. However, there has been much less understanding of the importance of digital information literacy, as well as how to manage these abilities and knowledge, and their effects on learning processes, especially in the current situation of digital education dominance and the necessity of interest creation in students. In order to address such needs and to evaluate students, as well as determine the effectiveness of the Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) loops, this study was conducted. In this study, 164 English language students were asked to participate in the pre-test, treatment, and post-test processes, while the treatments for the IDC group were developed in the form of interest-creation-habit triple loops. The results represented that IDC hybrid instruction was more effective in strengthening digital information literacy and personal knowledge management; and the IDC hybrid group outperformed the non-IDC hybrid group in terms of self-directed learning skills. These findings also revealed that to develop self-directed learning in critical readers, in addition to digital skills and how to manage and apply acquired knowledge, learning instructions (i.e., interest-creation-habit loops) have been effective. The IDC-hybrid group also identified the features of participation, perception-interest and facility-opportunity as the most significant and tangible ones.

Exploring the development of student teachers’ interest in educational technology through Interest-Driven Creator theory

This qualitative study is one of the early attempts to provide empirical evidence to inform Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) theory through a discrete Educational Technology course. In this study involving 64 undergraduate students who majored in education, we focused on the interest loop (triggering, immersing and extending) as it acts as an impetus to nurturing habitual learners. Qualitative data were sought to answer two research questions that explored student teachers’ initial interest in learning educational technology and to understand the development of their interest using IDC as the underpinning theory. The findings indicated that they initially showed little interest in the course. However, others felt good about and were drawn towards educational technology. The findings also indicated that interest development begins when situational interest is triggered and they become aroused by the course contents. The student teachers then willingly spend time accomplishing the given task when immersed in the learning process with a clear goal. They then progress to extend their interest, making sense of their newly acquired knowledge and connecting with other previously known knowledge to expand it further. Overall, our findings suggested that the interest loop of IDC was able to describe the development of student teachers’ interest in educational technology.

Interest-Driven Creator Theory: case study of embodiment in an experimental school in Taiwan


 
 
 Cognisant that the examination-driven culture in most Asian schools will hinder future educational innovation, a group of concerned Asian researchers started collaboration in 2014 to develop a theory to serve as a guide to design interest- driven learning activities. This endeavour then spawned the development of the Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) Theory. The theory postulates that when their learning is driven by interest, students can be engaged in knowledge creation. The continued practice of this creation process in their daily learning routines can lead students to excel in learning performance, develop 21st century competences and eventually form creation habits to be lifelong learners. This paper, therefore, adds on to the current articulation of IDC Theory by highlighting the implementation of an IDC experimental school in Taiwan and by presenting the story of how it embodies the spirit of IDC. The school curriculum prepares students to be lifelong readers and reflective writers with broad knowledge in the fields of Math, English Language, Science, and Interdisciplinary Social Studies. It emphasises not only students’ academic growth but also their physical wellness and character building. The endeavour intends to be a comprehensive example of practice-driven research, demonstrating how theory and practice can be bridged, and how a virtuous cycle of research improving practice and practice informing research can be developed. This paper also provides a glimpse of how IDC Theory can inspire the planning and integration of IDC-based education approaches in academic curricula beyond Taiwan. The paper ends with the call for a more concerted effort to create a sustainable alliance to share professional insights into IDC Theory through a non- governmental organisation.
 
 

Replies to commentaries on IDC Theory in practice


 
 
 We thank the seven scholars who have provided commentaries to our paper on the Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) experimental school in Taiwan. We provide replies to their commentaries in the interest of continuing the productive discussions that we hope to see in the further pursuance and refinement of the IDC theories. We also use the opportunity here to provide replies to the commentaries written by Dillenbourg et al. (2019) and Roschelle and Burke (2019), specifically written for the original IDC paper (Chan et al., 2018).
 
 

How to encourage students continue learning English on podcast? The perspectives of stimulus-organism-response and interest driven creator theory

PurposePodcasting is a new mobile technology application for language learning. Drawing upon the stimulus–organism–response model and the interest driven creator (IDC) theory from e-learning, this study aims to develop and test an integrative conceptual framework. This study investigates contextual and environmental stimuli effects (content richness [CR], self-directed learning [SDL] and situational interest [SI]) from a podcast English learning context on learners’ experience states (cognitive absorption [CA], pleasure [PL] and arousal [AR]) and their subsequent responses (continuance learning intention [CLI]).Design/methodology/approachUsing 416 valid responses from five universities located in North Taiwan, data analysis is performed using a structural equation model.FindingsThe results show that most of the interest factor stimuli (CR, SDL and SI) have significant impacts on learners’ experiences (CA, PL and AR), which in turn affect their CLI.Practical implicationsThe findings provide useful insights for English show podcasters and operators to invest in establishing learners’ interest factor and stimulating experiences to improve their CLI.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to a better understanding of students who use contextual factors of podcast English learning and how these factors influence their CLI via a framework of stimulus–organism–response and the IDC theory.

IDC theory: habit and the habit loop

Interest-driven creator (IDC) theory is a design theory that intends to inform the design of future education in Asia. It consists of three anchored concepts, namely, interest, creation, and habit. This paper presents the third anchored concept habit as well as the habit loop. IDC theory assumes that learners, when driven by interest, can be engaged in knowledge creation. Furthermore, by repeating such process in their daily learning routines, learners will form interest-driven creation habits. The habit loop, the process of building such a habit, consists of three component concepts—cuing environment, routine, and harmony. The cuing environment is a habit trigger that tells the students’ brain to get prepared and go into an automatic mode, letting a learning behavior unfold. Routine refers to the behavioral patterns the students repeat most often, literally etched into their neural pathways. Harmony refers to the affective outcome of the routine activity as well as the integration or stabilization of habits; that is, through the routine behavior and action, students may feel that their needs get fulfilled, feel satisfied, and experience inner peace. It is our hope that such habitual behavior of creating knowledge can be sustained so long that students ultimately become lifelong interest-driven creators. This paper focuses on the description of the three components of the habit loop and discusses how these components are related to the interest loop and the creation loop in supporting learners in developing their interest-driven creation capability.

Interest-driven video creation for learning mathematics

The teacher-directed approach characteristic of the traditional classroom normally adopted by mathematics teachers provides few opportunities for students to develop their mathematical problem-solving skills and little encouragement for them to engage in conversation. Furthermore, this approach might not be flexible to students’ individual learning needs and could generate low interest in mathematics among students. To reduce these learning problems, this study proposes a student-centered learning activity called interest-driven video creation, which adopts interest-driven creator (IDC) theory in its design. By viewing cognitive apprenticeship strategies as subcomponent concepts of the creation loop in IDC theory, this study could articulate and enrich the creation loop model of IDC design in mathematics. In an interest-driven video creation activity, students solved mathematics word problems through individual and group creation of tutorial videos. With these videos, students could teach their fellow classmates by discussing mathematics concepts and sharing ideas. The preliminary results reveal significant improvements in mathematics achievement and show that both high- and low-achieving students have positive attitudes and low anxiety regarding the activity and perceive both mathematics and the learning activity to be highly useful. In addition, the students’ perceptions of the benefits of the activity for learning are positive overall. Students also agree that they enjoy and engage in the video creation activity and that the activity helps them to learn mathematics better and improves their communication skills, teamwork skills, and filmmaking techniques.

IDC theory: interest and the interest loop

Numerous studies have shown that learning is enhanced when students show interest in the subject matter. However, educators continue to grapple with the challenges, or simply do not recognize their potential roles, in the development of students’ academic interest and interest in learning in general. This conceptual paper is written under the auspices of the interest-driven creator (IDC) initiative, a theoretical synthesis effort carried out by a group of educational researchers in Asia. The intention is to co-construct a holistic developmental/design framework to guide the students in fostering their learning interests, capabilities in creation, and learning habits—the three anchored concepts of IDC theory. This paper focuses on delineating a three-component “interest loop” to guide the design of a coherent learning process that encompasses a series of learning tasks. The three components are triggering interest, immersing interest, and extending interest. Underpinned by the rich literature on interest development, we will propose suitable design strategies for each of the three components, namely, curiosity, flow, and meaningfulness, respectively. We will then explicate their respective design considerations/principles to maximize the intended effects.

IDC theory: creation and the creation loop

The interest-driven creator (IDC) theory is being developed as a group endeavor by Asian researchers to articulate a holistic learning design theory for future education in Asia. The theory hypothesizes that students, driven by interest, can be engaged in the creation of knowledge (generating ideas and artifacts). By repeating this creation process in their daily learning routines, they will excel in learning performance, develop twenty-first-century competencies, and form creation habits. We hope that with such practices in education, our future generations will ultimately become lifelong interest-driven creators. In IDC Theory, there are three anchored concepts, namely, interest, creation, and habit. Each anchored concept comprises three component concepts which form a concept loop. For example, the creation loop consists of three component concepts—imitating, combining, and staging. Imitating is concerned with taking in (or inputting) an abundant amount of existing knowledge from the outside world to form one’s background knowledge. Combining refers to delivering (or outputting) new ideas or artifacts prolifically by synthesizing existing information encountered in the world and thoughts arising from the students’ background knowledge. Staging relates to frequently demonstrating the generated ideas or artifacts to the relevant communities and receiving feedback from these communities to improve the novelty and value of the demonstrated outcomes while gaining social recognition and nurturing positive social emotions. This paper focuses on describing the three components of the creation loop. We provide three case studies to illustrate the creation loop at work, as well as how it intertwines with both the interest and habit loops in supporting students to develop their creation capabilities. In presenting this iteration of the creation concept, an anchored concept in IDC theory, we acknowledge the roles played of imitation, combination, and staging in different learning and education contexts—indeed, there are multiple theories that inform and intersect with it.

Nurture interest-driven creators in programmable robotics education: an empirical investigation in primary school settings

In response to the call from the founders of the Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) theory, this study aimed to explore the relationship of the interest loop with creativity in the context of robotics education. Specifically, we designed a programmable robotics course for primary school students. We attempted to explore in detail how interest loop, i.e., triggering interest, immersing interest, and extending interest, exerts influences on students’ robotics creation. Eight hundred one online questionnaires were collected from students who participated in our designed programmable robotics activities. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was first used for validation of each study variable, and results suggested a good fit of the study variables in terms of convergent and discriminant validity. Then, structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted for examining the potential relationships between them, and results indicated significant and positive paths from triggering interest to immersing interest, and from immersing interest to extending interest, suggesting the valid theoretical proposition of interest loop of IDC theory. In addition, immersing interest is positively related to robotics creation, which in turn increases the chance of extending interest. Our findings suggested the importance of raising students’ interest in robotics learning such that young students can become life-long interest-driven creators. Implications of the study were discussed at the end of the paper.

Relationship between interest and mathematics performance in a technology-enhanced learning context in Malaysia

The primary aim of this preliminary study is to examine a possible association between interest and mathematics performance among Malaysian students in a technology-enhanced learning environment. The Mathematics Interest Inventory was administered to 40 students to measure students’ interest towards mathematics, while a mathematics test was used to measure students’ mathematics performance. Results of the descriptive statistical analyses revealed that the students were relatively interested in mathematics. Correlational analyses showed that interest was not significantly correlated to mathematics performance among the students. Nevertheless, a significant relationship between interest and mathematics performance was found among students who had lower mathematics performance. The findings of this study pointed to the importance of igniting interest among students with lower mathematics performance given its strong link to mathematics performance. The Interest-Driven Creator theory served as an anchor in the theoretical framework of the study and it was discussed within the context of mathematics learning.

Instilling innovativeness, building character, and enforcing camaraderie through interest-driven challenge-based learning approach

This study aims to identify how student teachers were impacted by an interest-driven challenge-based instructional design of an Educational Technology course over three semesters. The instructional design of this course was foregrounded by the Interest-Driven Creator Theory, anchoring on the two out of three concepts, namely Interest and Creation. Over the course of 14 weeks, the learning activities in each class meeting started by applying the Interest Loop. This was done by inviting students to participate in bite-sized challenges, at the same time making sure that students can extend the newly constructed knowledge from the activities to their final project. The objective of such design was to let students learn by doing or completing the weekly challenges given to them during class. Then, the students were guided to complete their final project through a series of workshops and personal group consultation with the course instructor. A focus-group discussion was conducted to gather data from the students over the course of three semesters, centering on answering the question of: How does an interest-driven challenge-based framework for learning design of an Educational Technology course impact learners? Interviews were conducted qualitatively, and the findings of the analysis that emerged were (i) instilling innovativeness, (ii) building character, and (iii) enforcing camaraderie. These findings suggests that a mesh-up between the interest-driven creator theory and challenge-based learning framework, then named as InDeC framework for learning design, could furnish learners with skills that are beyond those targeted in the course outcome. Among others, learners’ heutagogical skills can be improved when they are given the opportunity to realize their capacities and stretch their capabilities. Implicitly, this research may benefit instructors in their emerging responsibility of producing and readifying learners for future demands and challenges.

Commentary on Interest-Driven Creator theory: a US perspective on fostering interest, creativity, and habit in school

In this commentary on Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) theory, the authors reflect on the proposed three-step cycles of (i) sparking students’ interest, (ii) fostering individual creativity, and (iii) inculcating lifelong learning habits. Each component of IDC theory pulls together a wide span of prior research and emphasizes active roles for students. Although the context of IDC as a prototype for educational reform is K-12 Asian classrooms, we note that some US schools are also mired in a focus on test scores. This is especially true among the US most struggling, low-income schools, where a lack of electives and afterschool programs correspond to diminished student perceptions about their own autonomy as learners and their future creative potential. Thus, while IDC is an important provocation for curricular reform in Asia, there is also the need to broaden its scope and begin to explore the potential of IDC as a leadership tool beyond Asia. The wider learning sciences community, the commentary concludes, is uniquely suited to support such an extension, and there are many opportunities for productive international collaboration.

Interest-driven creator theory: towards a theory of learning design for Asia in the twenty-first century

Asian education is known for its examination-driven orientation, with the downsides of distorting the processes of learning and teaching, diminishing students’ interest in learning, and failing to nurture twenty-first century competencies among students. As a group of Asian researchers, we have been developing Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) Theory, a design theory based on three anchored concepts, namely interest, creation, and habit. Each of these anchored concepts is represented by a loop composed of three components. In the interest loop, the three components are triggering, immersing, and extending. The components of the creation loop are imitating, combining, and staging. The habit loop consists of cuing environment, routine, and harmony. These three loops are interconnected in various ways, with their characteristics revealed by the design process. We hypothesize that technology-supported learning activities that are designed with reference to IDC Theory will enable students to develop interest in learning, be immersed in the creation process, and, by repeating this process in their daily routines, strengthen habits of creation. Furthermore, students will excel in learning performance, develop twenty-first century competencies, and become lifelong interest-driven creators. To sharpen our understanding and further the development of the theory, we need more discussion and collaborative efforts in the community. Hypotheses arising from this theory can be tested, revised, or refined by setting up and investigating IDC Theory-based experimental sites. By disseminating the framework, foundations, and practices to the various countries and regions of Asia, we hope that it will bring about compelling examples and hence a form of quality education for the twenty-first century, which is an alternative to the examination-driven education system. In this paper, we present an overall introduction to IDC Theory and its history, and discuss some of the steps for advancing it in the future.

A framework of curriculum design for computational thinking development in K-12 education

To respond to the growing integration of digital technologies across all sectors of society, a curriculum should be developed to nurture the next generation as creative problem solvers in order to see the world through a computational lens. One way to achieve this goal is to design a curriculum in K-12 to promote computational thinking (CT) through programming. In order to facilitate the design of the CT curriculum, the expected learning outcomes of the curriculum are proposed in this study. The CT learning outcomes of this study compose of CT knowledge, practices, and perspectives. Based on the proposed CT learning outcomes and interest-driven creator theory, this article aims to propose a seven-principle framework for guiding the design of K-12 CT curriculum. The first three principles ensure CT skills and perspectives are delivered in the curriculum through a programming environment that fosters CT knowledge acquisition. The other four principles are the design strategies for CT development: provide incrementally complex computational tasks across all levels of the curriculum to develop CT skills; review each level of the curriculum by producing final project samples to ensure a comprehensive coverage of CT knowledge; design the computational tasks that are of interest to the target learners to nurture interest-driven creator; and establish appropriate assessment criteria for the final projects and showcase their productions to enhance learners’ creativity. The future work is to design, implement, and evaluate CT curriculum underpinned by these seven principles in K-12.