Main Motivational Patterns

•  "Maintained situational interest refers to a psychological state of interest that is subsequent to a triggered state, involves focused attention and persistence over an extended episode in time." (Hidi and Renninger, 114)

• Needs to be held and sustained through meaning.

• Situational interest needs to be supported. 

• In the classroom, provide meaning and involving personality to lessons or activities.

•  "Maintained situational interest refers to a psychological state of interest that is subsequent to a triggered state, involves focused attention and persistence over an extended episode in time." (Hidi and Renninger, 114)

• Needs to be held and sustained through meaning.

• Situational interest needs to be supported. 

• In the classroom, provide meaning and involving personality to lessons or activities.

•  "The beginning phases of a relatively enduring predisposition to seek repeated engagement with particular classes of content over time." (Hidi and Renninger, 114)

• Characterized by positive feelings, stored knowledge, and value

• Typically self-generated.

• Requires external support and stems from encouragement from others

• In the classroom, allow content to answer their curiosity.

•  "The psychological state of interest as well as to a relatively enduring predisposition to reengage with particular classes of content over time " (Hidi and Renninger, 115)

• Continuous reengaging of materials, knowledge, and value.

• Allows for long-term creativity and focus.

• Allows for more consideration from a student about content.

• Needs to be supportive and generally not self-generated.

• In the classroom facilitate the development of this by providing opportunities for challenge and interaction,

Interest theory helps within education because, in many studies, like Estes and Vaughan in 1973 for fourth grade, they found  “Personally interesting passages lead to superior performance on tests involving retention and inference.” (Hidi, 552) Hidi also notes on numerous occasions throughout her research that a student's interest affects attention, memory, knowledge quality, and the processing of information within a classroom. This is what interest theory is really all about. The stimulated interest in one’s brain can trigger processes in learning that elevate a student's abilities within the classroom and their learning. 

In the classroom setting, it is important to keep in mind students' interests. It is best if you know the students well; your knowledge of your students should consist of students' individual interests, societal interests, students' emotions, and their personal goals. On top of that, it is important to keep up with pop culture and media that will peak students as well. 

In terms of Situational interest, you can do things throughout lessons. For example, if teaching a unit about "The Great Gatsby", you can show clips from the movie for the students to watch and engage with. Another way to get situational interest in through interactive work, again, if you're using a "Great Gatsby" unit, instead of a test, you can do a quiz game show like jeopardy or family feud style to organize questions from the book and get students attenetion and engagement. Maintaining situational interest within the class, this can lead to individual interest from the student. 

In terms of individual interest from a student in the classroom, once you have received positive emotions from the materials. You can keep a maintained situational interest. This is what should spark an individual's interest. Continuing to do things like showing media, playing games, and engaging in activities in the classroom, it keeps the student excited about the material and has an interest in what they are learning about. This needs to be supported by the teacher by allowing the opportunities for the students to break out of the normal routine and have more freedom within the content and coursework. An example of keeping individual interest is if you say a student who thoroughly enjoyed jeopardy for the "The Great Gatsby" unit. You can do an activity similar to, but allow more creative freedom for their next unit, The Outsiders. For an activity that is similar, you can have the students make their own game from the materials to be used in class.