- The document summarizes research on supporting students' motivation in school, with a focus on classroom support for interest in math and science. - Study 1 found that an instructional intervention to facilitate conceptual change in biology was only effective for students with high individual interest in biology. - Study 2 found that situational interest in math predicted increases in individual interest in math over time. - Study 3 found that instructional techniques like providing choice, real-world connections, and opportunities for involvement supported situational interest in science, which predicted individual interest.

1. Supporting Students'
Motivation in School: A Focus
on Classroom Support

2. Acknowledgements
Linnenbrink-Garcia Lab
• Adar Ben-Eliyahu
• Kate Flanagan
• Paul O’Keefe
• Erika Patall
Other Collaborators
• Kenn Barron, James Madison Univ.
• AnneMarie Conley, UC, Irvine
• Amanda Durik, Northern Illinois
• Judith Harackiewicz, Univ. of Wisconsin
• Stuart Karabenick, Univ. of Michigan
• Kristin Koskey, Univ. of Toledo
• Christine Manzey, Univ. of Toledo
• Emily Messersmith, UNC-CH
• Kevin Pugh, Univ. of Northern Colorado
• Victoria Stewart, Univ. of Toledo
• John Tauer, Univ. of St. Thomas
Study 2 was funded by the National Science Foundation
Study 3 was funded by Duke TIP

3. Outline of Talk
• Overview of research
• Focus on supporting interest in math
and science
– Why is interest important? (Study 1)
– How can we support interest? (Study 2, 3)

4. Overview of Research
My research focuses on understanding:
1) How classroom and school environments, peers,
and parents shape students’ positive
motivational beliefs
2) How motivational beliefs to academic outcomes
ACADEMIC
ENGAGEMENT
&
ACHIEVEMENT
MOTIVATIONAL
BELIEFS
COMPETENCE BELIEFS
Academic Self-Efficacy
VALUE-RELATED BELIEFS
Interest/Value
Achievement Goals
SOCIAL CONTEXT
SCHOOL
PEER
GROUPHOME

5. Motivational Beliefs
• Two primary types of motivational beliefs:
1) Can I do this?
2) Why do I want to do this?
– Reasons for engagement (goal orientations)
– Interest/value in a domain
• Shaped by the environment and what the
individual brings to the environment

6. FOCUS ON INTEREST
(Why do I want to do this?)

7. Individual Interest
• Relatively stable, enduring
characteristic of the individual
• Includes both feeling (finding a domain
enjoyable) and value (finding a domain
personally meaningful, useful)

8. Why is Interest Important?
Study 1: Focus on Science Learning

9. Students’ Learning in Science
• Students’ learning of scientific concepts can
be especially challenging, as many students
enter the classroom with prior, well-
developed, incorrect conceptions or theories
about scientific phenomena
• These personal theories may interfere with
learning scientifically accepted view
• Thus science instruction must often focus on
teaching new concepts and overcoming
existing misconceptions (e.g., conceptual
change)

10. Supporting Conceptual Change
in Science
• To support changes in students’
misconceptions, instruction often focuses on
creating cognitive conflict by:
– Attempting to identify existing conceptions
– Making existing conceptions visible and challenging
them by allowing students to present, discuss, test,
and reflect on them
• Without high levels of engagement, this
cognitive conflict approach may not be enough
to support conceptual change
• Suggests that students’ motivation (e.g.,
interest) may also be critically important

11. Does the effectiveness of
cognitive conflict on students’
understanding of natural
selection vary as a function of
individual interest in biology?

12. Study 1 Participants
• 126 freshman/sophomore biology
students from six biology classes taught
by the same instructor
• Urban, parochial high school in Ohio
• 60% female, 40% male
• 75% Caucasian, 15% African American,
2% Latino, 1% Asian, 7% mixed

13. Study 1 Procedure
• Students assigned to instructional condition for
a 4-day unit on natural selection:
– Control: no lesson modifications
– Conceptual Change (CC): cognitive conflict lesson
modifications
• Conceptual understanding of natural selection
measured before the intervention (pre),
immediately after the unit (post), and five
weeks after the unit (follow-up)
• Individual interest in biology measured before
the intervention (pre)

14. Significant main effects of time (F = 58.94***), individual interest (F =
20.02***), and time x interest x instructional condition interaction (F = 2.69*)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Pretest Posttest Followup
ConceptualUnderstanding
Low Int Control
Low Int CC
High Int Control
High Int CC

15. Summary
• Results highlight the importance of individual
interest
• Instructional intervention was not enough to
facilitate conceptual change when individual
interest was low
• Highlights the importance of supporting and
developing individual interest

16. Model of Interest Development
(Hidi & Renninger, 2006)
Triggered Situational Interest
Maintained Situational Interest
Individual Interest
Context
Individual

17. Situational Interest
• Arises from the environment rather than individual
• Two types of situational interest
– Triggered Situational Interest
• Stimulation of interest
• Momentarily grabs attention but does not maintain engagement
– Maintained Situational Interest
• Heightened enjoyment of the domain supported through
instruction
• Increased personal involvement with the domain, as supported
by instruction
• Meaningful connection to the topic or domain being taught

18. Supporting Interest
Development
Study 2: Focus on Situational
Interest

19. Study 2: Participants &
Procedure
• Participants were middle school (42%) and high
school (58%) students from a large urban school
district in southern California
• 52% female, 48% male
• Latino (80%), Asian (15%), Caucasian (4%), or
African-American (1%)
• Fall (Phase I), n = 284
– Assessed situational and individual interest in
math
• Spring (Phase II), n = 181
– Assessed individual interest in math

20. INDIVIDUAL
INTEREST
(FALL)
SITUATIONAL
INTEREST
(FALL)
INDIVIDUAL
INTEREST
(SPRING)
.45***
.24***
Does situational interest in math
predict changes in adolescents’
individual interest in math?

21. What Instructional Practices
Support Situational Interest and
Does this Lead to Changes in
Individual Interest?
Study 3

22. Study 3 Participants
• 126 gifted adolescents taking science courses
as part of a 3-week summer residential program
in North Carolina
• 8th-10th grades (Mean age = 14.6 years)
• 54% male, 46% female
• Caucasian (71%), Asian American (11%), Latino
or Hispanic (6%), African American (3%), other
or unreported (9%)

23. Study 3 Procedure
Phase I Phase II
Individual
Interest
Pre Week 3
Individual
Interest
Situational
Interest
Residential Program
3 weeks
n = 117 n = 110
Instructional
Techniques
Achievement

24. Does situational interest predict
individual interest in science?
Triggered
SI
Maintained
SI-Value
Maintained
SI-Feeling
Individual
Interest
T2
.15*
Individual
Interest
Phase I
Spring 2006
Phase II
Summer 2006
.12*

25. How do Instructional Techniques Support
Situational (SI) Interest in Science?
Perceived
Choice
Connection
To Real Life
Instructor
Approach.
.38***
.35***
Triggered
SI
Maintained
SI-Value
Maintained
SI-Feeling
Individual
Interest - TI
.19*
.35***
.21*
.27**Opportunity
For Involvement

26. Individual
Interest T1
Individual
Interest
T2
.22**
.25***
.11*
Situational
Interest
.34***
Perceived
Choice
Connection
To Real Life
Instructor
Approach.
Opportunity
For Involvement
.37***
.13*, z = 3.27***
.03, z = 2.51*
-.13*
Do Instructional Techniques Support
Individual Interest via Situational Interest?

27. Conclusion
• Individual interest is important for enhancing
students’ learning and engagement in school
• Effectiveness of instructional interventions to
facilitate learning may vary as a function of students’
interest (and subsequent engagement in the
intervention)
• Teachers can support situational interest by
providing students with choices and helping to make
connections of course material to real life, which is
in turn associated with changes in domain-level
individual interest
• Suggests that teachers play an important role in
shaping students’ interest in school, which can in
turn facilitate engagement and learning

28. Thank you…