Influence on Learning

An individual's interest can be based around cultural values and norms in which many people hold in the culture. Because of this, if material can be related to one's own culture, they will be more prone to keeping interest in the activity. If these values are incorporated in other activities, the individual will feel a better (most likely positive) connection to the activity. Because of this stronger connection, it will increase interest in the individual. This can be things such as religion, home life, sports teams, etc.

External support from other people such as family, friends, etc. can keep individuals stay interested in a specific activity or material. Social support can also be used to increase interest based on needs or goals of the recipient.  Social support can both increase and decrease interest. For example, if a student's friend doesn't like a certain subject and complains about it all the time, the student will most likely lose interest in the subject because of their social support (friend) but if the individual has a positive support system and their friends push the student to complete work, they will be more likely to do so.

Those who have some emotional connection to an activity, topic, etc. are more prone to being interested in the topic. Feeling such as happiness,  satisfaction, and even anger can create interest. Emotional connections can also differ the individuals interest. For example, if someone continuously gets made fun of for sucking at basketball, the individual would likely avoid playing because of the emotional connection of embarrassment or failure.

Individual Interests are often powerful determinants of attention, recognition, and recall in the classroom. When a task is deemed interesting by an individual, that student is more likely to persevere and re-engage when attempting a difficult task. Re-engagement leads to increased subject depth and positive mindset. 

Both reading comprehension and mathematical word problem solving performance is positively impacted when interest is present. Creating individual interest in a large student population requires time and effort. Many teachers do not have the time to develop individual interest due to a high student to teacher ratio.

Students displaying text-based interest are more likely to remain engaged with a text, and more likely to provide creative responses about the text after. When tested simultaneously, students were more likely to recall concrete facts and ideas from texts they were interested in rather than texts that were deemed important. 

The four factors that lead to text-based interest are novelty, character identification, life themes, and activity level. When students are presented with new, exciting, or relatable ideas in a text they are more likely to sustain interest. Hidi and Baird experimented with texts designed around these four factors, and saw increased student retention of personally relevant information. These factors did not increase abstract idea generation.

Bergin, D. A. (1999). Influences on classroom interest. Educational Psychologist, 34, 87-98.

Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Review of Educational Research, 60,549-571.