Profiling the differences in students' knowledge, interest, and strategic processing.

Abstract

The purpose for this research was threefold: to determine whether distinct and informative student profiles would emerge from knowledge, interest, and strategy measures specific to educational psychology; to compare these profiles with prior studies; and to explore changes in student profiles across an academic semester. As a result of cluster-analytic procedures, 3 distinct groups of participants emerged at pretest, and 4 emerged at posttest. One of the profiles that remained fairly consistent from pretest to posttest was the Learning-Oriented cluster. Students fitting this profile began the semester with the highest means in interest and strategic processing and with a moderate level of domain knowledge. By the end of the semester, this cluster obtained the highest means also on the domain knowledge test Yet, the largest cluster at posttest seemed unable or unwilling to learn from demanding exposition.

Mediating effects of teacher enthusiasm and peer enthusiasm on students’ interest in the college classroom

“…Mitchell (1993) identified individual interest as an interest that people already have and bring to some context; for instance, some students will already have some interest in the course content before they take a course in the field. As with situational interest, individual interest has been found to have a positive influence on learning processes such as attention, recognition, and recall (Renninger & Wozniak, 1985) and academic motivation (Alexander & Murphy, 1998;Scheifele, 2001). …”

“…There are a number of studies that show a positive impact of interest on learning (Alexander & Murphy, 1998;Scheifele, 1991;Scheifele, 2001;Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992). Ainley, Hidi, and Berndorff (2002) examined the mediating processes of interest in reading comprehension and reported that topic interest influences reading comprehension as topic interest is associated with affective responses and is related to persistence with the text and learning.…”

“…Thus, interest has been used as a predictor of students' achievement as well as an outcome to measure students' success in college in some studies (Harackiewicz, Barron, Tauer, Cater, & Elliot, 2000;Harackiewicz, Barron, Tauer, & Elliot 2002). For instance, Alexander and Murphy (1998) reported that having relatively more domain knowledge at the beginning of the semester would not necessarily lead to optimal academic performance, but that interest and strategic investment contributed to better performance, implying the importance of the interplay among cognitive and noncognitive variables.…”

“…Ainley, Hidi, and Berndorff (2002) examined the mediating processes of interest in reading comprehension and reported that topic interest influences reading comprehension as topic interest is associated with affective responses and is related to persistence with the text and learning. Alexander and Murphy (1998) investigated the shifts in learner profiles throughout a semester of a course in terms of knowledge, interest in a domain, and strategic ability, suggesting that having relatively more domain knowledge at the beginning of the semester would not necessarily lead to optimal academic performance.…”

New Pedagogies of Motivation: Reconstructing and Repositioning Motivational Constructs in the Design of Learning Technologies

“…Renninger (2006, 2011) have shown that interest is not fixed, but malleable, and often related to classroom learning: 'Teachers often think that students do or do not have interest, and might not recognize that they could make a significant contribution to the development of students' academic interest' (Hidi & Renninger, 2006, p. 111). Interest, too, can play a significant role in the level of learning that students are able to attain in given topic areas, largely because students' interests serve as contexts for learning (Alexander & Murphy, 1998;Renninger et al, 2002;Lipstein & Renninger, 2007).…”