Using a mixed-method design, the purpose of this research was to understand interest in the elementary science classroom as affected by different teaching methods. Of particular concern was the state of interest in junior level (Grades 4-6) science classrooms. Research conducted on science interest and attitudes toward science has identified significant declines in student interest and engagement across grade levels. To remedy these concerns, it has become imperative that researchers and science educators gain a greater understanding of the growing literature in the field of interest and how this research might improve student engagement, especially at the elementary level. Questionnaires were administered to 178 students from Grades 4-6 measuring their individual interest in science, the frequency at which they were exposed to different teaching methods in science, and the level of interest they held for each instructional approach in science class. In addition, student interviews were conducted with six students from both genders representing each grade to better understand what makes for interesting and effective teaching of science in the eyes of the students. The quantitative and qualitative components yielded largely similar findings. Results indicated that passive learning tasks, such as written work and note taking, became less popular as grade level increased, that female students maintained a greater interest in passive learning tasks than males, and that passive learning tasks had the greatest impact on predicting student interest in science. Furthermore, students reported that they were best engaged by instructional strategies that were characterized by experimentation, cooperation, relevance, and novelty. These results were used to shed light on previous research in the field, and to suggest directions for future research and practice. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-09 11:04:44.967

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of context-dependency of seductive details on recall and transfer in multimedia learning environments. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, the purpose was to identify context-dependent vs. context-independent seductive details in a lightning animation. Seductive details were considered as interesting yet irrelevant sentences in the narration of lightning animation. Sixty-seven undergraduate students participated in Experiment 1 and assigned interestingness scores to the 28 content irrelevant sentences. Participants were assigned to two different groups, context-dependent seductive details group (CDSD) and context-independent seductive details group (CISD). Participants in the CDSD group assigned interestingness scores after watching a lightning animation to be familiarized with the context of lightning formation. Participants in the CISD group watched a historical inquiry animation as a distraction task before assigning interestingness scores. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that 13 of 28 sentences in the lightning formation text were seductive details according to participants of the study. Ultimately, 6 of the 13 seductive details were determined to be context-dependent and 7 were determined to be seductive details were context-independent. The purpose of Experiment 2 was to investigate the effects of context-dependency of seductive details on recall and transfer in multimedia learning environments. Undergraduate students (n = 184) were randomly assigned into four groups. Participants in all groups watched a lightning animation, and performed a recall and a transfer task. The first group watched an animation that did not include any seductive details. The second group watched the animation with context-dependent seductive details only. The third group watched the animation with context-independent seductive details only. The last group watched the animation with both types of seductive details. A 2x2 ANOVA for both recall and transfer, and contrast analyses were conducted to determine the effects of context-dependency of seductive details on recall and transfer. The results indicated that there was no significant effect of context-dependency of seductive details on recall or transfer. The findings are discussed in the context of the related literature and directions for future research are suggested. / Ph. D.

I den här rapporten visar vi att ett undervisningsmaterial, som är framtaget utifrån faktorer som enligt tidigare forskning ökar det situationella intresset för något som ska läras, triggar ett situationellt intresse för materialet hos flera av eleverna i den gymnasieklass som deltog i undersökningen och håller det situationella intresset hos vissa av dessa elever. Intresse är en faktor som påverkar elevers framtida val av yrke och utbildning och således kan lärare som lyckas skapa intresse för fysik hos elever vara med och bidra till en mer jämlik skola. Situationellt intresse är den typ av intresse som på kort sikt går att påverka i klassrummet, och med rätt stöd kan ett situationellt intresse vara grunden för att ett mer långvarigt individuellt intresse ska uppstå. Det finns flera olika faktorer som påverkar det situationella intresset i klassrummet och inte direkt beror av läraren, och utifrån dessa designade vi ett undervisningsmaterial som implementerades i en fysikklass under tre lektioner. Syftet med undersökningen var att se om det uppstod situationellt intresse för materialet hos eleverna genom att titta på hur eleverna har arbetat med och hur de har upplevt materialet. Utifrån observationer, elevintervjuer och elevenkät går det att fastställa att ett situationellt intresse för materialet har uppstått hos flera elever i klassen. Därmed kan det situationella intresset i klassrummet ökas utan att läraren förändrar sitt sätt att undervisa. / In this report, we show that an education material, which is produced according to factors that previous research has shown increases the situational interest for things to be learnt, triggers a situational interest for the material within several of the students that took part in the study and maintains the situational interest for some of these students. Interest is a factor that affects students’ future choice of occupation and education and therefore teachers who successfully create interest for physics within students can contribute to a more equal school system. Situational interest is the kind of interest that with a short-term view can be affected in the classroom, with the right support situational interest can be the foundation for a more long-term individual interest. There are multiple factors that can affect the situational interest in the classroom which do not directly depend on the teacher, and we designed an education material, which was implemented in a physics class during three lessons, according to those factors. The purpose of this study was to see if situational interest arose for the material within the students by looking at how the students work with the material and what they experienced when working with it. From observations, survey answers and interviews one can determine that a situational interest for the material has arisen within many students in the study. One can conclude that the situational interest can be increased in the classroom without the teacher having to change his or her way of teaching.

Die gegenwärtige Form der Landwirtschaft steht in engem Zusammenhang mit zentralen Themen der nachhaltigen Entwicklung wie dem Verlust der Biodiversität und dem Klimawandel. Der daraus resultierenden steigenden Bedeutung von Land¬wirtschaft steht eine weitgehende Abkopplung insbesondere junger Bevölkerungs¬schichten gegenüber, bedingt durch veränderte Lebensbedingungen und den landwirt¬schaftlichen Strukturwandel. Um dieser Diskrepanz zu begegnen, bestehen Bestrebungen, das Interesse junger Menschen an Landwirtschaft im Rahmen von gezielten Bildungsmaßnahmen (wieder) zu beleben. Eine zentrale Rolle kommt dabei dem Bauernhof als erfahrungsintensivem und handlungsorientiertem Lernort zu. Ein Ziel dieser Studie war die Analyse von Schülerinteressen an landwirtschaftlichen Themenbereichen und deren Einflussfaktoren und damit verbunden zunächst die Entwicklung eines geeigneten Messinstruments. Darauf aufbauend wurde die Entwicklung der Schülerinteressen an Landwirtschaft nach einem fünftägigen Schulbauernhofaufenthalt und einer daran anschließenden Lerneinheit in der Schule untersucht. Dafür wurde eine quantitative Schülerbefragung zu vier Messzeitpunkten durchgeführt. Zudem wurden während beider Interventionen Einflussfaktoren des situationalen Interesses bestimmt und wechselseitige Einflüsse von situationalem und individuellem Interesse analysiert. Die ersten beiden Studien dokumentieren die Entwicklung und Validierung des faktoriellen Designs eines Messinstruments mit vier Interessekomponenten und fünf landwirtschaftlichen Themenbereichen. Die zweite Studie belegt zudem die Bedeutung von Vorwissen, Naturerfahrungen, Ekelsensitivität und Geschlecht als Einflussfaktoren der landwirtschaftlichen Interessensbereiche. Fünftägige Schulbauernhofaufenthalte mit aktiven Arbeitserfahrungen in verschiedenen landwirtschaftlichen Bereichen konnten die Schülerinteressen in einigen Bereichen steigern, wobei vor allem Jungen Interessenzuwächse erzielten, wie in Studie 3 deutlich wird. Im vierten empirischen Beitrag wird ein Modell mit kombinierten außerschulischen und schulischen Interventionen zur Entwicklung landwirtschaftlichen Interesses beru-hend auf verschiedenen Strängen bisheriger Interesseforschung abgeleitet. An den Schulbauernhofaufenthalt anschließende schulische Lerneinheiten konnten das gestei-gerte Interesse aufrechterhalten, dieses sank jedoch weitere fünf Wochen später wieder. Bezüglich des situationalen Interesses bei der Arbeit auf dem Schulbauernhof waren vor allem das Kompetenzerleben, zudem wahrgenommene Autonomie und soziale Eingebundenheit von Bedeutung. Das situationale Interesse an der schulischen Einheit wurde durch die Verbindung von Catch- und Hold-Elementen stärker gefördert im Vergleich zu Varianten der Einheit, die nur catch- oder hold-Elemente integrierten. Im Zuge der Interessenentwicklung über die vier Messzeitpunkte zeigten sich wechsel-seitige Einflüsse des situationalen und individuellen Interesses. Diese Arbeit unterstreicht die Bedeutung wiederholter landwirtschaftlicher Bildungsinterventionen um diesbezügliche Interessen nachhaltig zu stärken.

This research examined how four different animated pedagogical agent implementations, which focus on perceptual and inquiry arousal conditions of attention as defined in Keller’s ARCS model of motivational design (Keller, 2009), impact English language learners' situational interest, cognitive load, and reading comprehension in online readings tasks. Animated pedagogical agents (APA) are computer characters embodied with speech, gestures, or movement (Sweller, Ayres, & Kalyuga, 2011), which according to cognitive-affective theory of learning with media (CATLM; Moreno, 2005; Moreno & Mayer, 2007), can provide a mechanism for triggering situational interest in reading materials through different arousal conditions. In this study, perceptual arousal and inquiry arousal were implemented in two different levels within four APA conditions: high perceptual arousal and high inquiry arousal condition, high perceptual and low inquiry condition, low perceptual and high inquiry condition, and low perceptual and low inquiry condition. Study outcome variables included situational interest, cognitive load, and reading comprehension. Situational interest is a psychological construct defined as a specific person-to-topic relationship, which is triggered by the instructional environment during the first stage of a 4-phase model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006; Krapp, 2002). In this study, situational interest was operationally defined as a self-reported degree of attention and an affective reaction to environmental stimuli; situational interest was measured using a 6-item, 5-point Likert-scale instrument adopted from Rotgans and Schmidt’s (2011b) experiment. Cognitive load is defined in cognitive load theory as a mental effort in working memory, part of which may contribute to formation of mental schemas in long-vi term memory structures (Sweller et al., 1998, p. 259). In this study, three types of cognitive load were examined, including extraneous cognitive load, intrinsic cognitive load, and germane cognitive load. The three types of cognitive load were operationally defined as self-reported complexity, clarity and effectiveness of the presentation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of a topic. The three types of cognitive load were measured using a 10-item, 11-point Likert-scale questionnaire, which was validated in prior studies (Leppink et al., 2013). The last outcome variable, reading comprehension, was measured using multiple-choice recall and understanding questions included with each original text passage. This study did not find any evidence of perceptual or inquiry arousal effects on situational interest, however, disordinal interaction between perceptual and inquiry arousal levels on germane cognitive load was found. Also, a main effect of inquiry arousal levels on reading comprehension was discovered.

Students benefit from positive sport experiences in physical education. If designed well, sport provides a social avenue for physical activity and strengthens student achievement in psychomotor (e.g., motor skill), cognitive (e.g., decision-making), and affective (e.g., personal and social responsibility) learning domains. Unfortunately, not all students receive quality sport instruction and many students fail to have positive sport experiences in physical education. The Tactical Games Model (TGM, Griffin, Mitchell, & Oslin, 1997) is an instructional model focused on improving student sport experiences. As a constructivist approach to teaching and learning sport, TGM reshapes sport lessons to allow students to experience small-sided games (Game 1), think critically about games playing (Q & A), practice aspects of playing (Situated Practice), and show improvement in games playing (Game 2). TGM literature includes practitioner reports about involvement (Berkowitz, 1996) and findings that show measures of game performance (e.g., skill execution, decision-making) during a TGM sport unit (Allison & Thorpe, 1997; Turner & Martinek, 1999). Limited data is available to explain how the constructivist nature of TGM influences motivation (Griffin & Patton, 2005; Rink, 2001). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine motivation using situational interest theory (Chen, Darst, & Pangrazi, 1999; Mitchell, 1993) to interpret participant – learning situation (Game 1, Q & A, Practice, and Game 2) experiences during an eight-day TGM Ultimate Frisbee unit. The researcher acted as teacher-researcher and participants were 15 fifth graders (assigned to heterogeneous teams) and Mia, the regular physical education teacher and participant-observer. Data were collected using surveys, learning situation questionnaires, interviews, and systematic observations using the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI, Oslin, Mitchell, & Griffin, 1998). Data analysis incorporated open and axial coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), theoretical comparisons (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), and concept mapping (Rossman & Rallis, 2003). Findings show that participants‟: (a) participated in daily lessons regardless of gender, goal orientation, skill/effort level, and personal interest in Ultimate, (b) were excited to play games (Game 1, Game 2) because they wanted to move, liked Ultimate, and/or wanted to assess skills/playing, (c) required challenging conditions, positive competition, and/or individual/team success in order to have a positive participant-games playing experience, (d) entered Q & A and Practice expecting to learn something new, (e) stayed interested in Q & A if they received answers, learned facts/rules, and/or felt the discussion helped team, (f) remained involved in Practice if team worked well, task was fun, and/or they learned skill/strategy, and (g) perceived improvements in games playing (e.g., throwing). Mia concluded that participants: (a) were motivated to play, (b) were involved in the different learning situations, and (c) improved games playing during the unit. GPAI scores confirmed that participants‟ improved at least one area of game performance (e.g., skill execution-passing) between Day 3 (week 1) and Day 7 (week 2).

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Educators are commonly concerned about how to trigger students' interest in the classroom, as well as how to create a learning experience in which students are engaged and motivated to invest effort and time. Similarly, researchers have explored these variables and aimed to establish a better understanding of how students' interest is developed. Yet, less attention has been paid to teacher self-disclosure as a factor in students' learning experiences and interest development. Although teacher self-disclosure has commonly been addressed in connection with the teacher-student relationship it has not been linked to interest development. Therefore, with the goal of exploring the construct of teacher self-disclosure, this study explored associations and interactions of perceptions of teacher self-disclosure and of students' individual and situational interest in a language learning context. In addition, students' ratings of the learning experience and intended effort were added to investigate associations between these student variables and their perceptions of teacher self-disclosure and interest. Data were collected in language classes of 16 different instructors. In total, 185 students participated in the qualitative part of the study, Phase 1, by filling out surveys at the beginning and end of the semester. For the main analysis, correlation and regression analyses were used in order to explore the relations between students' perceptions of teacher self-disclosure and initial individual interest, situational interest, the learning experience, and intended effort. Further, a total of nine instructors and eight students participated in the qualitative part, Phase 2, by agreeing to be observed and interviewed. Here, the focus was on describing and assessing the use of teacher self-disclosure in language classes. Results indicated that teachers were rated as varying in their self-disclosure, but that self-disclosure did not account for much of the variance in students' situational interest. Qualitative results showed that students perceived teacher self-disclosure to be an important communication strategy and one of the influential variables an instructor can bring into the learning experience. Overall, this study makes a contribution to understanding the complexity and interactions of student and teacher variables that are crucial to establish a functioning student-teacher relationship and subsequently healthy learning experience. / text

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