• Patterns •

There are four major phases within Interest theory, phase one: Triggered Situational Interest, phase two: Maintained Situational Interest, phase three: Emerging Individual Interest, and phase four: Well-Developed Individual Interest.

Phase One: Triggered Situational Interest

Triggered Situational Interest is a result of short-term changes in affective and cognitive processing. In more understandable terms, the interest of an individual is sparked when they come in contact with information or an external experience that they didn't know about or feel a strong personal relevance to. For students, this first phase is the most important because it leads the student into developing that interest further and build on the information. A couple examples of ways to trigger a student's interest are:

Games/Puzzles
Attention grabbing/thought provoking images, music, or video
Personal stories relatable to content from teacher or students

Phase Two: Maintained Situational Interest

Maintained Situational Interest occurs when the student has continued interest in the material and starts to get involved and develop a deeper meaning. After a student has already been hooked on material, this phase is where they move on from just finding something interesting to actually wanting to know more about the subject. Some things that will help students develop their triggered situational interest include:

Group/individual projects
Experiments
Classroom discussions or think, pair, share

Phase Three: Emerging Individual Interest

Emerging Individual Interest is different from situational interest in that in this phase students are more inclined to go out on their own and research without being told to do so. When in this stage students ask more questions and put more effort into the school work related to the material. If there is a choice given, students at this level will opt to do tasks related to the topic they are interested in. Students begin to take their learning into their own hands, this includes:

Generating their own questions about the content
- Then finding answers on their own if their question can't be answered
Exceed task demands in work
May or may-not lead to a well-developed individual interest

Phase Four: Well-Developed Individual Interest

The last phase in the interest theory is the Well-Developed Individual Interest. In this phase the student takes control of the material they are interested in as they have developed a deep curiosity of the subject. One of the factors that lead students to this level is community, whether that is from their peers or from family at home this will help the student stay interested in the topic.

The student will reengage tasks that they think are valuable
This phase may com from students finding answers to questions their teacher couldn't answer
The environment of the student can impact the level of their interest and could further drive them

Citations

(Hidi and Renninger, 2006)

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