Mary Ainley

Interest, Learning, and the Psychological Processes That Mediate Their Relationship.

Although influences of interest on learning are well documented, mediating processes have not been clarified. The authors investigated how individual and situational interest factors contribute to topic interest and text learning. Traditional self-report measures were combined with novel interactive computerized methods of recording cognitive and affective reactions to science and popular culture texts, monitoring their development in real time. Australian and Canadian students read 4 expository texts. Both individual interest variables and specific text titles influenced topic interest. Examination of processes predictive of text learning indicated that topic interest was related to affective response, affect to persistence, and persistence to learning. Combining self-rating scales with dynamic measures of student activities provided new insight into how interest influences learning.

Gender and Interest Processes in Response to Literary Texts: Situational and Individual Interest.

Abstract This investigation examined interest in literary texts among senior secondary students. It explored how individual and situational factors contribute to topic interest and, using interactive computer techniques, monitored reactions to the texts that followed. Eighty-six tenth graders (equal numbers of boys and girls) participated. Gender was the factor most closely associated with topic interest, and text titles served as important situational triggers. Individual interest in literature made a relatively small contribution to topic interest. Whereas a model linking topic interest, affective responses and persistence operated for higher topic interest texts, for lower interest texts persistence was influenced only by gender.

A Cultural Perspective on the Structure of Student Interest in Science

In this paper, we examine the nature of interest in science as represented in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data. We discuss the interconnections between measures of knowledge, affect, and value as components of interest in science. Working from a perspective acknowledging that many of the models of motivation represented in the literature have been developed in Western countries, we investigated whether the ways that knowledge, affect, and value combine in the structure of students’ interest in science might vary in line with historical and cultural traditions. Four countries were chosen to represent contrasting cultural values as defined in analyses of the World Values Surveys and the European Values Surveys—Colombia, Estonia, USA, and Sweden. Models are described showing variations in fit across the four countries. Efforts to increase the attractiveness of science to students should take heed of the fact that all models indicated a central role for enjoyment of science in the paths linking personal value, interest, and current science activities with intentions for future participation in science. Differences in the strength of the associations between science knowledge and interest in science support the proposition that the interconnections between knowledge, affect, and value need to be understood in relation to students’ broader historical and cultural context.

Students’ Interest and Engagement in Classroom Activities

This chapter focuses on interest as a key motivational construct for investigating the relation between motivation and engagement. The emphasis is on identifying the links between the underlying interest processes and students’ participation in achievement activities. It is suggested that a dynamic systems perspective with its emphasis on the individual as a self-organizing system provides a productive framework for future developments in understanding the sets of processes that support engagement. Central in this analysis will be an examination of the microprocess level to identify the process variables that combine in different patterns of student engagement. Addressing the relation between motivation and engagement at the microprocess level puts a major emphasis on the immediate context of the task and the broader classroom. However, these are nested within expanding contexts of school and community cultures, and the relation between interest processes and engagement in achievement activities will be considered within the framework of investigations into patterns of interest and engagement using data from the PISA 2006 international survey of science achievement.

The factor structure of curiosity measures: Breadth and depth of interest curiosity styles

A wide range of assessment forms has been used for research on curiosity. The structure and content of these assessment forms together with the theoretical viewpoint assumed in scale construction were examined to indicate the nature of the construct of curiosity underpinning such research. It was proposed that a two-factor construct of curiosity subsuming two styles—breadth of interest and depth of interest—best describes the behaviour being measured. Five curiosity scales containing 12 subscales were administered to 227 college students. The scores were factored using principal factoring with iteration and then rotated to a varimax solution. Rotation of two factors separated the scales into two groupings matching the predicted structure. Rotation of a third factor did not change the basic pattern of relationships among the scales. The results did not indicate a general factor of curiosity but rather supported the validity of the proposed two-factor construct of curiosity.

The Relationship Between Vocational Interests, Self-Efficacy, and Achievement in the Prediction of Educational Pathways:

The influence of vocational interest, self-efficacy beliefs, and academic achievement on choice of educational pathway is described for a cohort of Australian students. Participants were 189 students aged 14—15 years, who were considering either academic or applied learning pathways and subject choices for the final 3 years of secondary school. Using Holland’s interest model within a social cognitive career theory (SCCT) framework, logistic regression analyses indicated that all three constructs were significant predictors of pathway and subject selection and enrolment. The best predictive model for students with strong Realistic interests was an interaction of self-efficacy and interest. For Investigative students, both self-efficacy and achievement were best predictors and for Artistic, Social, and Conventional, achievement was the best predictor of future course enrolment. The results of this research offer partial support for the theory of Lent, Brown, and Hackett in that a variable pattern of associations between vocational interest, self-efficacy, and achievement emerged across the Holland interest themes.

Interest, Enjoyment and Pride after Failure Experiences? Predictors of Students' State-Emotions after Success and Failure during Learning in Mathematics.

The current investigation was designed to identify emotion states students experience during mathematics activities, and in particular to distinguish emotions contingent on experiences of success and experiences of failure. Students’ task-related emotional responses were recorded following experiences of success and failure while working with an individualised computer-based mathematics learning environment. In addition, relations between these patterns of emotional responses after success and failure experiences and trait-like motivational variables, self-concept of ability, subject value, orientation to learning from errors, goal orientation and causal attributions, were examined. Two separate studies are reported. In Study 1 emotions associated with success and failure experiences in mathematics were investigated in relation to self-concept of ability, subject value and orientation to learning from errors. In Study 2, patterns of emotion following success and failure were examined in relation to students’ goal orientation and their causal attributions for success in school.

Staying with the text: the contribution of gender, achievement orientations, and interest to students’ performance on a literacy task

This study addresses concerns about boys’ underperformance on literacy tasks compared to girls, by investigating male and females students’ responses to narrative texts. Participants were 142 Grade 9 and 10 students. Achievement orientations, including goals, self‐efficacy, and self‐handicapping, were measured and approach and avoidance factors identified. Boys scored higher than girls on the avoidance factor. The task presented to participants involved reading sections from two narrative texts representing typically male or typically female reading interests. Interest ratings for the narrative text topics and interest levels while reading the texts were monitored, and students’ answers to multiple‐choice questions on text content recorded. Regression analyses confirmed that the influence of gender, achievement orientation, and on‐task text interest on reading performance varied with different patterns of task interest. The findings suggest that students’ achievement orientations and task interests are both important for understanding gender differences in students’ response to narrative texts.

Search or explore: do you know what you're looking for?

This paper explores the distinctions between searching and exploring when looking for information. We propose that, while traditional search engines work well in supporting search behaviour, they are more limited in assisting those who are looking to explore new information, especially when the exploration task is ill-defined. We ran a pilot study using two systems: one based on a traditional database search engine, and the other -- a highly innovative, engaging and playful system called iFISH -- that we designed specifically to support exploration through the use of user preferences. We looked for evidence to support the concept that exploration requires a different kind of interaction. The initial results report a positive response to our exploration system and indicate the differences in preferences amongst users for systems that match their searching or exploring behaviours.

University Teachers Engaged in Critical Self-Regulation: How May They Influence Their Students?

We outline a new model for teacher learning, critical self-regulation (CSR). CSR is an aspirational model for the reflective processes that can underpin continuing professional development of university teachers. We propose a four-phase model of CSR that draws on the student learning literatures of metacognition and self-regulated learning (SRL), and critical reflection from adult education. To Zimmerman’s three-phase model of SRL, we add a prior stage that includes teachers’ reflection on the basic premises of their instruction and consideration of higher-order instructional goals. At the appraisal end of the process, the evaluation phase of SRL is extended to incorporate critical (or premise) reflection. We argue that critical reflection provides a qualitatively different and a deeper reflection than the reflection referred to in existing metacognition and SRL models. Following the presentation of the model of CSR, situations and tools for developing CSR are considered. We focus on learning that arises because of the perceived need by the teacher to address some learning or teaching dilemma.