Abstract

Educators have a critical stake in supporting the development of interest—as the presence of interest benefits sustained engagement and learning. Neuroscientific research has shown that interest is distinct from, but overlapping with, self-related information processing, the personally relevant connections that a learner makes to content (e. g., mathematics). We propose that consideration of self-related information processing is critical for encouraging interest development in at least two ways. First, support for learners to make self-related connections to content may provide a basis for the triggering of their interest. Triggered interest encourages individuals to search for more information, and to persevere in understanding material that otherwise might feel meaningless. Second, for learners who already have an initial interest in the content, self-related connections can further promote the deepening of interest through sustained engagement and information search. Background regarding both interest and self-related information processing is provided, and implications for practice are suggested.

Benefits Of Interests

Having an interest in what one is learning significantly benefits: 1. attention (e.g., Hidi, 1995; McDaniel et al., 2000) 2. memory (e.g., Renninger & Wozniak, 1985) 3. goal setting (e.g., Harackiewicz et al., 2008) 4. sustained engagement (e.g., Azevedo, 2013) 5. performance (e.g., Crouch et al., 2018; Jansen et al., 2016).

Key Questions

Why is it that some learners sustain engagement following the triggering of interest, and others do not?
Why is it that for some learners, interest continues to develop and deepen almost effortlessly?

Self-Related Information Processing

For example, when under-represented minority students working with professors on biomedical research identified the benefits of their investigation for their own communities, they were more psychologically involved in their work over time than majority students who did not receive this support; they also had an increased interest in pursuing a scientific research career (Thoman et al., 2015).

Self-representation has been described as an integration hub for information processing (Sui & Humphreys, 2015). In other words, when learners make self-related connections to information they need to process, their self-prioritization benefits the quality of these connections. Helping learners identify self-related connections to the content they are learning supports interest development in at least 2 ways. First, making connections to the self provides a basis for the triggering of interest. Triggered interest encourages individuals to search for more information, and to persevere in understanding material that otherwise might feel meaningless. Second, for those who already have an initial interest in the content, self-related information processing can promote deepening of interest through sustained engagement and information search. Self-related processing plays an increasing role in engagement as interest develops.

Four Phases Of Interest Development

Research has shown that interest develops through 4 phases, starting with the initial triggering of interest that draws attention to that content, such as self-relatedness (relation to the self), novelty, intensity, and so forth (Hidi & Renninger, 2006; Renninger & Hidi, 2019).1

Conclusion

Educators should look for interest indicators

In the classroom, teachers can look for indicators of the level of their students’ interest in the way that their students engage: 1. whether they opt to return to working with content overtime 2. the increasing depth of their engagement 3. whether they voluntarily engage, and if they will do so independently (Renninger & Hidi, 2016; Renninger & Wozniak, 1985).

Interest And Motivation

When learners have an interest in what they are doing, they are able to self-generate rewarding information search (Renninger et al., 2019). However, when there is little to no interest, efforts to enable the learner to identify their own links to the content to be learned are critical. Support provided by encouraging self-related information processing is likely to promote the motivation to reengage, ongoing interest development, and learning.

Power Of Interest

There are two aspects of interest that explain its power. 1. The first is its association with the activation of the reward circuitry. Once interest is triggered and maintained, related information search is rewarding, and external rewards, while appreciated, may not be needed (Hidi & Renninger, in press). 2. The second is the self. As a person’s interest develops, it is increasingly likely to become an aspect of a person’s identity (Renninger, 2009). For those who have yet to develop an interest, support to make self-related connections during the triggering of interest has the benefit and ensuing reward of enabling learning and promoting the development of interest

Related Citations

Links Between Interest And Education

James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. Macmillan.
Dewey, J. (1913). Interest and effort in education. Houghton Mifflin.

Study: Interest development, self-related information processing, and practice