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 t o enhance interest can be irrelevant to learning, and may even undermine le arning, promoting interest can enhance learning if applied appropriately; t herefore, educators could benefit from understanding factors that predict a nd 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), emotion s, competence, utility-goal relevance, and background knowledge (which incl udes a hole in the schema). The situational factors are hands-on, discrepan cy, novelty, food, social interaction (which includes visible author), mode ling, 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.