Situational Interest Research Articles

Using choice and utility value to promote interest: Stimulating situational interest in a lesson and fostering the development of interest in statistics.

Using choice and utility value to promote interest: Stimulating situational interest in a lesson and fostering the development of interest in statistics.

Supplemental Material for Using Choice and Utility Value to Promote Interest: Stimulating Situational Interest in a Lesson and Fostering the Development of Interest in Statistics

Supplemental Material for Using Choice and Utility Value to Promote Interest: Stimulating Situational Interest in a Lesson and Fostering the Development of Interest in Statistics

Which Leadership Traits Matter Most? An Activity in Leadership Development

Leadership is widely associated with an array of attributes. The variety of attributes present both advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, attributes are appealing and easy to recognize in leadership. On the other hand, the number of attributes and which ones matter the most may be overwhelming. Grounded in experiential learning and situational interest, we present an implicit leadership activity with two main goals. First, we provide examples of attributes associated with many effective leadership prototypes. And second, we ask students to reflect on these attributes themselves and with others. The exercise is ideal for undergraduate introduction to leadership in general or implicit leadership theory. We provide instructions and resources to tailor the exercise to the needs of the instructor.

Multidisciplinary teaching with an active video game: the effect on learning in mathematics and physical education

ABSTRACT Practising active video games (AVGs) requires performing motor and cognitive tasks, which might foster success in physical education and other school subjects but remains poorly investigated. This study examined the learning effects of six lessons using AVGs with physical education and mathematics content. Overall, 216 school-students composed an experimental group (n = 99) and a control group (n = 107). Both attended six lessons, each on using a Cartesian coordinate system and ball-throwing accurately, with AVGs in the experimental group only. Learning was assessed at Lessons 1 and 6, situational interest and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at Lessons 3 and 5. MANOVAs showed no between-group differences in situational interest and higher MVPA for the control group at Lesson 3 only. Statistical analysis showed higher learning scores (mathematics and physical education) for the experimental group at Lesson 6, suggesting possible interest in AVGs during multidisciplinary sequences connecting physical education and mathematics.

Educational Gaming and Situational Interest for Higher Education Students

InPraktijk is an educational game developed for first year physical therapy students. The game aims to use playful learning to optimize students' interest in interacting with course content. This project is a first step in achieving a versatile educational game platform optimized for engaging, playful learning that can be applied across multiple educational programmes. The project seeks to improve students’ motivation to engage with course materials outside of class time and explore the relationship between playful learning and situational interest. Our research is focused on a deeper understanding of the relationship between situational interest and playful learning. The InPraktijk game, developed in collaboration with Game Tailors, will be used as a tool to test this relationship. Through the game, we will collect quantitative data on time played, drop out location and situational interest using the situational interest scale. This work in progress paper covers the design for study 1 of the InPraktijk project. The study indicates whether the gamified interaction with course content can generate more situational interest compared to traditional content delivery methods. The results will provide insights into the effectiveness of the InPraktijk app in stimulating situational interest. Our findings will guide the direction of follow-up studies on further game optimization and the integration of playful games in educational structures.

Does the human professor or artificial intelligence (AI) offer better explanations to students? Evidence from three within-subject experiments

ABSTRACT Three within-subject experiments were conducted by providing students with answers to content questions across different subject matters (a definition, explanation, and example) offered by a human professor (subject-matter expert) versus generative artificial intelligence (ChatGPT). In a randomized order, students read both the expert and ChatGPT’s responses (both were de-identified and declared to be “professors,” so students were not aware one was artificial intelligence), rated both explanations on teaching clarity and competence, and then reported on their affect toward the content and situational interest. Study 1 (interpersonal communication content) revealed no significant differences in repeated measure ratings comparing the expert versus ChatGPT. However, in Study 2 (business communication content) and Study 3 (instructional communication content), compared with the expert, ChatGPT (impersonating a professor) was rated by the same students as higher in teaching clarity and competence, and it generated more student affect and situational interest. In Study 2 and Study 3, a within-subjects mediation analysis revealed that ChatGPT generated more student affect toward the content through the clarity in responses it provided to students.

Investigation of STEM Supported Engineering and Design Experiences of Students Participating in Design and Innovation Workshop in the Context of Situational Interest Theory

This study aims to examine the engineering and design-supported STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) experiences of students who participated in the "Design and Innovation Workshop" organized at the Science and Art Center (SAC) during the semester break. The experiences and perceptions of 17 students (10 males and 7 females) were analyzed in depth in this study, which was conducted using a phenomenology design from qualitative research methods. Semi-structured interview form, student diaries, field notes and STEM product drawing form were used as data collection tools. The research findings showed that students' participation in design and engineering-based STEM activities enhanced their problem-solving skills, creativity and teamwork. The theory accompanying the research suggests that these activities increase students' interest and motivation in STEM disciplines. The research results suggest that design and innovation workshops can positively influence students' attitudes and skills towards STEM fields.

The value of technology and interactive systems in cultural heritage interpretation: a study based on existing empirical research

ABSTRACT The role of Technology and Interactive Systems in advancing cultural heritage interpretation holds significant value, which lacks a clear and systematic analysis. This study, grounded in the visitor perspective and based on a review of past empirical research findings, argues that Technology and Interactive Systems possess intellectual and experiential value in the context of cultural heritage interpretation. In terms of intelligence and knowledge, Technology and Interactive Systems can expand the scope of information in cultural heritage interpretation, enhance the effectiveness of information delivery, thereby optimizing the visitor's cognitive level regarding cultural heritage. Regarding experience, Technology and Interactive Systems cultivate and intensify visitor situational interest, establishing and strengthening emotional connections between the visitor and cultural heritage. Additionally, the study highlights value divergences and questions regarding the use of Technology and Interactive Systems in cultural heritage interpretation and proposes optimization strategies.

Math task experiences and motivation to learn more: How prior knowledge and interest interact with Task‐Interest & Task‐Difficulty perceptions and feed a desire to reengage

AbstractHow do task experiences support proximal and longer‐term desires to reengage? Central to this question is the interplay between perceptions of task difficulty and the situational interest. This interplay is increasingly researched but not yet well understood. Micro‐analytic, latent studies are important tools for replicating past findings and extending our understanding in this area. This study aimed to extend our understanding of the interplay between readiness (prior knowledge and individual interest), a sequence of mathematics task experiences (situational interest and perceived difficulty) and reengagement beyond the set of tasks (i.e. optional follow‐up engagement). Participants (ages 20–49; n = 301) completed a series of maths tasks online, self‐reporting their task experiences after each task. Participants were offered an optional opportunity to follow‐up with the task content as a measure of their continued interest. Both readiness components assessed were important predictors of future situational interest (positive) and perceptions of task difficulty (negative). Persistent interconnections between the task experience components across time supported past evidence regarding the important role of situational interest and the challenges of perceived difficulty for sustained engagement. Modelling indicated that task success (β = 0.36), situational interest (β = 0.16) and perceptions of task difficulty (β = 0.21) can converge on choices to reengage with an object going forward.

Curiosity, Interest, and Engagement: Unpacking Their Roles in Students’ Learning within a Virtual Game Environment

Learning in a virtual environment has been found to foster students’ affective responses, indicating the importance of exploring the factors which affect students’ learning when engaged in a virtual game. This study aimed to explore the relationships among students’ epistemic curiosity, situational interest, and learning engagement in an exploratory 3D virtual game environment. A virtual game was designed for elementary school students to learn concepts of evaporation and condensation in real-life situations. Data were collected using questionnaires from a total of 121 sixth-grade elementary school students, and were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The reliability and validity of the instruments employed in this study were verified. The structural relationships showed that I-type epistemic curiosity showed a stronger influence on the design of the virtual game environment compared to D-type epistemic curiosity. Challenge was found to be negatively predicted by I-type epistemic curiosity, but positively predicted by D-type epistemic curiosity. Instant enjoyment was also found to play a significant mediating role between I-type epistemic curiosity and emotional engagement. It is suggested that future research should consider providing students with interesting contexts and challenging tasks as a critical approach to designing virtual game learning environments.

Constructive retrieval: Benefits for learning, motivation, and metacognitive monitoring

AimsWe tested whether combining constructive learning prompts with retrieval practice (constructive retrieval) positively affects delayed learning outcomes (factual knowledge, comprehension), metacognitive accuracy, and motivation. Sample & methodsUndergraduate students (N = 152) learned from a video-recorded lecture, and then engaged in follow-up learning activities involving retrieval practice, restudy, elaboration, or a combination of retrieval practice with elaboration. We ensured that initial retrieval success was high and that all groups had the same expectations about the nature of content to be tested. We assessed both factual knowledge and comprehension, as well as the respective indicators of metacognitive-monitoring accuracy (metamemory, metacomprehension). We assessed self-efficacy and situational interest as motivational variables. ResultsIn a one-week-delayed posttest, elaboration improved factual knowledge and comprehension. This pattern held whether learners just elaborated or additionally engaged in retrieval practice. Having students self-generate their own examples during retrieval practice improved comprehension, but merely letting students retrieve experimenter-provided examples did not. Students' self-reported mental effort mediated the factual knowledge benefits of retrieval practice. The number of students’ self-generated elaborations mediated comprehension benefits. Students engaging in constructive retrieval while learning revealed the highest metacognitive-monitoring accuracy in factual knowledge and comprehension. We found no differences between conditions regarding situational interest and self-efficacy. Motivation to reuse the respective learning strategies was higher in all conditions compared to restudy. ConclusionConstructive retrieval seems advantageous when considering its benefits on learning outcomes and metacognition. When working on retrieval tasks, students only profited from self-generated, but not from provided, examples with respect to comprehension.

Does watching an explainer video help learning with subsequent text? – Only when prompt-questions are provided

BackgroundLearning with explainer videos can foster learning. However, their effects on subsequent learning are still unclear. On the one hand, they might increase situational interest and scaffold subsequent learning. On the other hand, they might hinder subsequent learning by fostering an illusion of understanding. In case of the latter, the question arises of whether providing prompt-questions after an explainer video would prevent an illusion of understanding. Therefore, we investigated the effects of medium and prompt-questions on subsequent learning with text. SampleOne hundred thirty-three teacher students and psychology students from a German university. MethodsIn an online study with a 2x2 between-subjects design, we investigated the effects of medium (video vs. video-script) in learning phase 1 and prompt-questions (yes vs. no) on subsequent learning with text. ResultsAs expected, watching the video made the content seem more interesting and less difficult. Contrary to the illusion-of-understanding-assumption, this did not result in learners overestimating but rather underestimating themselves. Moreover, while prompt-questions in the video condition fostered learning, they impaired learning in the video-script condition. Exploratory mediation analyses revealed that in the prompt condition, the superiority of the video was mainly driven by the quality of the prompt-answers rather than the time learners invested in answering the prompt-questions. ConclusionsOur findings suggest that explainer videos combined with prompt-questions can foster learning with subsequent text. However, further research is necessary to replicate the findings under more controlled conditions and to investigate the underlying processes in greater depth.

Storifying instructional videos on online credibility evaluation: Examining engagement and learning

This study used video-based instruction to promote adolescents' online credibility evaluation skills and to examine whether storification of instructional videos can maintain students' situational interest and positive activating epistemic emotions during a four-lesson intervention better than non-storified instructional videos. The study also investigated whether storified instruction can enhance students' learning of online credibility evaluation skills better than non-storified instruction. The learning content of the videos was equivalent, differing only in terms of storification. Students participated in either a non-storified (n = 135) or storified (n = 115) video-based instruction (4 x 45-min lesson). In each of the first three lessons, students watched an instructional video explaining one credibility evaluation strategy. In the fourth lesson, the video introduced a case requiring students to apply the taught strategies. After watching the video, students' situational interest and positive activating epistemic emotions (i.e., curiosity and excitement) were measured. Then, students practiced the taught strategies with learning tasks. Students' credibility evaluation skills were measured before and after the intervention with an online credibility evaluation task. The latent growth curve model showed that non-storified and storified videos similarly maintained students' situational interest. No decline was observed. However, a small decline in positive activating epistemic emotions was observed in both instructional conditions. Students' credibility evaluation skills improved equally across instructions. The results underline that professionally produced videos following several multimedia design principles can trigger and maintain situational interest and enhance students’ online credibility evaluation skills without the need to incorporate additional storified elements.

Exploring the dynamics of situational interest in team-based learning in undergraduate medical education

BackgroundTeam-based learning (TBL) is a widely recognized instructional approach in medical education blending direct instruction with active-cooperative learning in small groups. While TBL is known to enhance knowledge acquisition, its impact on student motivation, particularly through situational interest, remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate the development of situational interest across the distinct phases of TBL, focusing on how each phase (individual readiness assurance test; iRAT, team readiness assurance test; tRAT, and application exercise; AE) influences students’ situational interest. The study sought to provide insights into the motivational dynamics underpinning TBL in a medical education setting.MethodsA total of 88 medical students participated in a TBL session on “Bleeding during Pregnancy.” Situational interest was measured after each TBL phase. A one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to assess the fluctuation of situational interest throughout the session.ResultsThe analysis revealed significant variations in situational interest across different TBL stages. There was a significant increase in situational interest following the tRAT (p = .001). Post-tRAT, situational interest significantly decreased after the AE (p = .007), returning to levels observed at the session’s start. Post hoc correlation analysis suggested a negative association between tRAT performance and situational interest, indicating heightened interest in response to awareness of knowledge gaps during the tRAT.ConclusionsThe findings of this study may challenge the traditional view of TBL, suggesting a more integrated and dynamic interplay between knowledge acquisition and application phases. The results highlight the importance of the AE phase in clinical education and suggest that situational interest is one key driver in the learning process within TBL. Future research should focus on replicating these findings and comparing situational interest development between pre-clinical and clinical student cohorts to further understand the effects of situational interest on TBL in medical education.

Why narrative frames matter for instructional videos: A value-evoking narrative frame is essential to foster sustained learning with emotional design videos

Background & aimsInstructional videos on the internet that incorporate emotional design often employ a narrative frame. This frame is intended to enhance the value of the content to-be-learned and, in turn, promote sustained learning in longer learning sessions. We tested whether the presence of a value-evoking narrative frame (vs. expository frame) actually enhances sustained learning. Sample & methodsWe employed a 2 × 2 × 3 mixed between-subject design (N = 128) with repeated measures on three 5-min sections of video. The between-subject factors included audiovisual design (emotional vs. neutral) and frame (narrative vs. expository). Results & conclusionWe observed a three-way interaction between audiovisual design, frame, and learning phase with respect to learning outcomes: The narrative frame was essential for improving sustained learning at the end of the video. Without the narrative frame, emotional audiovisual design hindered sustained learning. This pattern of results suggests that employing a narrative frame maintains triggered situational interest and contributes significantly to sustained learning from instructional video.

Situational Interest: A Valuable Motivator for the Physical Education Student

Student motivation has been identified as important in supporting the learning, growth, and development of physical education students. A key construct that is housed within motivation is situational interest. Situational interest is an affective response that has been associated with enhanced levels of student engagement and involvement. The aim of this article is to provide the PE teacher with an understanding of the sources and pedagogical strategies that can assist in supporting the situational interest of students. Specifically, five key sources of situational interest are discussed, as well as teaching and learning approaches that can be applied across a range of PE settings.

MUTUAL PERCEPTION OF THE GREAT POWERS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD WAR II (THE CASE OF SOVIET-FRENCH RELATIONS)

Perception in international relations has long been studied in political science, but historians have not paid suffi cient attention to it so far. Meanwhile, looking at known events through its prism allows us to draw new conclusions about their origins. The prehistory of World War II and its key episode — the failure of attempts to deter Hitler’s aggression in Europe through the joint eff orts of France and the Soviet Union — can serve as a fruitful field for testing this approach. For the military and political elites of France, the USSR was dangerous due to its unpredictability, but an internally fragile. This presumption leveled all the successes of the Soviet leadership in modernizing the country and the armed forces in the eyes of the French. The increased military danger in Europe after 1933 prompted Paris merely to offer Moscow the role of an ordinary participant in the system of collective security, which was based on the experience of World War I and designed as a new model for the development of international relations and minimization of conflicts between countries. The Soviet government viewed France as a leading imperialist power that prioritized anti-Soviet goals, but had a situational interest in limiting German expansion. At the same time, Moscow believed that Soviet-French cooperation could be effective only as an equal strategic alliance aimed at deterring a potential aggressor. This approach was rejected by French diplomacy, which followed the policy of appeasement. It was a source of a deep crisis in bilateral relations at the time of the 1938 Munich agreements. The collapse of appeasement in early 1939 led to a sharp turn by the French government to strategic planning for a possible war and created a window of opportunity for an agreement with the USSR. However, the inertia of old prejudices deprived the tripartite Anglo-French-Soviet negotiations in the spring and summer of 1939 of their practical content and opened the way for a Soviet-German agreement

The Intertwining of Children’s Interests and Micro-Practices at a Science Museum: Case Study of Three Children

Children’s multiple interests intersect with their participation in informal learning practices in dynamic ways. Using a theoretical framework illustrating interest as a multifaceted construct that has different forms and a range of scope and durability, this study investigates how children’s situational interests and individual interests are developed and reinforced and how they support micro-practices (i.e., any small practices, actions, activities, interactions that occur moment-by-moment) and vice versa. From a larger data set collected from one-time family science learning sessions at a museum, three children (aged 6–10) were strategically sampled to foreground an enhanced understanding of how interest and participation in practice mutually constitute each other. Using video-based interaction analysis, our case study of three children illustrates different patterns where micro-practices intersect with different types of interests at the museum. Even in the same environment with the same exhibits, each child from this case study constructed a unique pathway of forming the collection of micro-practices that was constantly interacting with situational interests and individual interests in specific disciplines, topics, exhibits, or any other various targets. For example, when having a strongly existing individual interest in a specific science discipline, one child’s micro-practices were mainly driven by making choices of exhibits that are related to his science interest, while another child did not actively choose exhibits but found her own creative ways to connect her science interest and other new interests. Our study contributes to a more robust conception of interest that highlights the intertwining of multiple, malleable, and moment-by-moment interests and micro-practices in the museum.

Informative narratives increase students’ situational interest in science topics

Informative narratives increase students’ situational interest in science topics

Using Virtual Reality to Enhance Forensic Science Education: Effects on CSI Learning Achievements, Situational Interest and Cognitive Load

This study examined the effectiveness of an interactive VR-based platform (IVR-CSI) for crime scene investigation training in forensic science education. The IVR-CSI utilized real-case scenarios and head-mounted displays. University students majoring in criminal investigation (N = 71) participated, with 36 using IVR-CSI and 35 in the control group with traditional training. Pre-test, post-test, and delayed test assessments to measure learning achievements, situational interest, and cognitive load. Statistical analysis revealed that the experimental group demonstrated significantly better immediate learning outcomes and retained knowledge more effectively over time compared to the control group. The IVR-CSI also elicited higher situational interest across most dimensions, particularly in novelty, exploration intention, attention demand, and instant enjoyment. Importantly, IVR-CSI did not increase students’ intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load but enhanced their germane cognitive load. These results highlight the positive impact of IVR-CSI on CSI training, offering valuable insights for enhancing professional training programs and instructional methods in this field.