Main Motivational Patterns

The Interest Theory can be broken down into four phases: phase one or "Triggered Situational Interest", phase two or "Maintained Situational Interest", phase three or "Emerging Individual Interest", and phase four or "Well Developed Individual Interest".

Phase 1: Triggered Situational Interest

What is situational interest? "Situational interest refers to focused attention and the affective reaction that is triggered in the moment by environmental stimuli" (Hidi and Renninger, 2006) . In phase one, or "Triggered Situational Interest", this means that the person is interested in the subject matter because of something they experienced, and they are engaged for a brief window of time. This first phase is important because it is the key to getting students to engage in classroom activities so that they want to learn about the subject matter and find value in it. Some methods of triggering interest include:

Including a game or activity that relates to the content
Giving an interesting presentation or using visuals (such as videos)
Including humor or puzzles to get kids started into the lesson

Triggered situational interest is generally short lived, however if it can be sustained long enough, it can evolve into phase two of the interest theory, "maintained situational interest".

(For more advice view the "Situational Interest" page)

Phase 2: Maintained Situational Interest

Now we know that situational interest is an interest based on something the student or person has experienced, but maintained situational interest is different than triggered situational interest. Maintained situational interest happens when the student has taken an interest in the material for long enough that they become involved and find meaning in the activity. In other words, this phase has progressed beyond students simply finding something "cool" and then moving on to the next topic, which is what we see in phase one.

So how do teachers get students to progress to phase two? Frequently this is done by connecting the trigger for situational interest to the content that is going to be taught, which helps students become interested in the content. You could have students, for example:

Do group work
Create projects
Do experiments
Help teach each other (think, pair, share)

If done well and the students are still becoming more interested in the topic being taught, maintained situational interest can develop into emerging individual interest, or phase three.

(For more advice view the "Situational Interest" page)

Phase 3: Emerging Individual Interest

Individual interest is different from situational interest. While situational interest depends on external stimuli, individual interest is "A person’s relatively enduring predisposition to reengage particular content over time as well as to the immediate psychological state when this predisposition has been activated." (Hidi and Renninger, 2006) What this means is that when students have individual interest they begin to find and seek out information related to the content being taught.

Students who have developed an emerging individual interest will begin to find how subject material relates to them and their lives without being instructed to do so. In phase three we see students begin to ask more questions about subject material and go "above and beyond" what is requested in class work. While they may not yet be including the material in their everyday life, they will begin to think about this material over a longer amount of time and create personal connections with it. In phase three we see students begin to notice and connect to subject material more and, given enough time, emerging individual interest can evolve into phase four or “well developed individual interest”.

Phase 4: Well Developed Individual Interest

The fourth and final phase in the interest theory is "Well Developed Individual Interest". In this phase, students begin to almost take ownership of the subject material that they are interested in, and make it "their thing". They do individual research, incorporate it heavily into their lives and thoughts, and pursue more and more knowledge without being instructed to, simply because the topic interests them and to satisfy their own curiosity. While well developed individual interest can stem from individual curiosity, a supportive community or friends and family who are interested in the topic can also help develop individual interest if the student is exposed to the topic regularly in their community and day to day lives (Hidi and Renninger, 2006). Students in phase four will persevere in their quest to expand their knowledge of the topic, even if they become frustrated or can’t find the information immediately. Phase four last longer than any of the other phases because students gain a drive to know and gather more information to build on as they go through however long the interest can be sustained. Topics that become well developed individual interests are a long phase of interest, and can even last a lifetime if the interest can be sustained for that long.

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