Research on importance and interest: Implications for curriculum development and future research

Research has found that interest is related to attention, deeper processing , the use of effortful strategies, feelings of enjoyment, and learning. How ever, some strategies for creating interest in text materials may interfere with the learning of important information. In this paper, I describe resu lts of a study that used qualitative verbal report measures to identify tex t characteristics that are most positively and most negatively associated w ith interest, as well as quantitative measures to investigate how those cha racteristics are related to learning. Results have implications for curricu lum development by contributing to our understanding of how writers of info rmational text can make important information interesting. The paper conclu des with suggestions for pedagogical practice and for future research that may further our understanding of interest and how it might be enhanced in c lassrooms.