Elsevier

Learning and Instruction

Volume 12, Issue 4, August 2002, Pages 383-409
Learning and Instruction

Structural and dynamic aspects of interest development: theoretical considerations from an ontogenetic perspective

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(01)00011-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Empirical research on the development of individual interests is mostly concerned with the analysis of developmental trends in groups or populations. However, there is a distinct lack of theoretical constructs that describe and explain interest development from the perspective of the growing individual. This article presents a collection of theoretical concepts and models that can be used to describe and explore structural and dynamic aspects of interest development from an ontogenetic research perspective. Basic ideas of an educational–psychological conceptualization of interest are outlined that—contrary to many other conceptualizations in this field—is based on a dynamic theory of personality. Such an approach provides an opportunity to analyze and reconstruct the manifold interrelations between the changing structure of a person's pattern of interests and the developing personal “self” during ontogenesis. Exemplary selected theoretical models and ideas are presented, including the question of general stages during the course of interest development from childhood to early adulthood, models to describe and theoretically reconstruct structural changes in an individual's pattern of personal interests over a longer period of time, ideas of how to conceptualize the transition from situational to individual interest, and theoretical considerations about the structure and function of the psychological regulation-system that is assumed to be responsible for establishing and stabilizing motivational preferences. Although these concepts and considerations are not yet integrated into a coherent ontogenetic theory, they may serve as a basis for a theoretical discussion on how to achieve this aim.

Introduction

Over the past decades, educational research has increasingly studied the influence of interest on learning and development in various educational settings. According to a proposal made by Krapp, Hidi, and Renninger (1992), most researchers differentiate between situational interest and individual or personal interest. The empirical findings show that learning motivation based on interest tends to have many positive effects on the process and the results of learning. Both individual interest and situational interest (or text-based interest) have a profound facilitative effect on cognitive functioning and learning (Hidi, 1990). In a large number of studies, substantial positive correlations were found between different indicators of interest and different learning outcome criteria (Schiefele, Krapp, & Winteler, 1992). Most of the results on the positive influence of interest in learning and achievement are from correlational studies. There are also, however, several results from experimental studies which support the generally positive evaluation of learning motivation based on interest. The findings of empirical research have been reviewed comprehensively from different theoretical perspectives (e.g., Alexander, Kulikowich, & Jetton, 1994; Alexander & Murphy, 1998, Baumert & Köller, 1998, Hidi, 1990, Hidi & Berndorff, 1998, Krapp, 1992, Krapp et al., 1992, Renninger, 1990, Renninger, 1992, Renninger, 2000, Schiefele, 1996a, Schiefele, 1998, Schiefele, 2001, Prenzel, 1998). Although there are several contradictory results, especially with respect to the impact of interest on achievement and learning in mathematics at the secondary level (Köller, 1998; Köller, Baumert, & Schnabel, 2000), the conclusion seems to be justified that an interest-triggered learning activity leads to better learning results, especially with respect to qualitative criteria (e.g., a higher degree of deep-level learning).

The finding has important educational implications; it suggests ways to improve the quality of learning in schools and other educational settings (e.g., college, university or vocational training), especially with respect to lifelong learning. Theories and results from this line of research can be used to show that it is worth fostering interest-triggered learning in school and elsewhere, but they do not say very much about how this goal can be achieved. Theories and concepts are therefore needed about the genesis and further development of subject-related interests. Which factors, for example, are responsible for arousing a new interest in a current situation? How can this situational interest be sustained for a longer period of time in order to create a sufficiently stable willingness to occupy oneself with something new? Under which conditions is it reasonable to expect that such a longer-lasting situational interest will become a new thematic focal point in the interest profile of the developing personality?

These questions concern both actual-genetic and ontogenetic aspects of interest development. Actual-genetic approaches describe and explain the emergence/appearance of a “working interest” in an actual situation. From the perspective of motivation research, this aspect refers to the question of how an individual becomes motivated to occupy him/herself in an activity in a certain way. This process is sometimes characterized as “development” of a situational interest or as “actualization” of an already existing personal interest (Krapp et al., 1992). Here, the concept of development is used in the meaning of a rather short-term process which describes the actual-genetic changes of a person's interactions with his or her learning environment. The ontogenetic perspective is more general. It refers to longer-lasting changes in the structure of an individual's pattern of traits or characteristics which can be interpreted as more or less stable “dispositions” for thinking and acting in a certain way. Ontogenetic analyses of interest development describe and explain the emergence, stabilization and change of individual interests.

There are many research approaches that investigate specific aspects of these developmental processes at both levels of analysis. But there are hardly any attempts to integrate the empirical findings on the basis of an overarching theory of interest development (Krapp, Renninger, & Hoffmann, 1998). As in other fields of empirical research, the researchers' main effort is often to explore and test a specific hypothesis and not so much to discuss and develop components of a general theory. Theory development, however, is an important goal because practitioners who are the ultimate users of empirical research need more than just a collection of unconnected “interesting” empirical findings. In the long run, the aim of psychological research must be the development of coherent and convincing theories that provide an integrated picture of structural and functional principles in a certain field. In the field of interest development, such a theory is not yet in sight. Nevertheless, we should start a discussion about how this goal could be reached. What kinds of theoretical concepts are necessary to inform educational practice in an adequate manner? Is it possible to explicate general psychological principles that can describe and explain certain aspects of interest development? Does it make sense to integrate theoretical constructs and/or functional hypotheses from other fields of psychological research?

This paper proposes to supply a basis for such a theoretical discussion. What I am going to present are theoretical considerations about selected structural and dynamic aspects of interest development. The main focus is on intraindividual changes and not so much on developmental trends in groups or populations. Since any concept of interest is characterized by its content-specificity, a developmental theory must be able to explain why a person develops an interest in a certain domain but not in another one, or why an existing interest is changed or abandoned entirely. A central point in this paper deals with the question of how and under what conditions a relatively lasting individual interest grows out of an interest that has been triggered in a specific situation and can thus been characterized as “situational interest”. In the following section I will first outline the basic ideas of an educational–psychological conceptualization of interest, which not only describes criteria for the operationalization (measurement) of this theoretical construct, but also makes statements about the central role of interest in the process of human growth and the functional relations between a person's pattern of interest and the development of a person's self-system or identity. Although these kinds of questions are rarely brought into the focus of empirical research, they are central for a comprehensive ontogenetic interpretation of interest development.

Section snippets

An educational–psychological conceptualization of interest

In recent theories, interest is mostly understood as a phenomenon that emerges from an individual's interaction with his or her environment. This postulate is also a starting point of a theoretical approach that has been variously discussed under the label “person–object theory of interest” (POI). The central ideas are based on work by H. Schiefele and colleagues in the 1970s and 1980s (Schiefele, 1974, Schiefele, 1981; Schiefele, Krapp, Prenzel, Heiland, & Kasten, 1983; Prenzel, Krapp, &

Components of an ontogenetic theory of interest development

Since Herbart (1806), educational theorists have always maintained the importance of motivational dispositions and demanded to foster the development of lasting (educationally valuable) interests in school, which are seen as a supraordinate goal of education (Dewey, 1913; H. Schiefele, 1981; Wittemöller-Förster, 1993). It is also assumed that stable and satisfactory interest-based relations to freely selected object areas in the “life-space” of a person are an important basis for human growth

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