Exploring the Development of College Students' Situational Interest in Learning Science

This quasi-experimental study explores how student cumulative situational interest, short-term preference generated by particular conditions such as novel experiences can be developed into better individual interest, an enduring predisposition to engage in certain activity such as chemistry lessons. A continuous intervention of integrating novelty and aesthetic experience into teaching was used for the experimental group (n=64) while another class of 105 students studying another course of physical science without the intervention of novelty and aesthetics served as a comparison group. The analysis of covariance comparing the two group students' pre- and post-test perceptions of learning science revealed that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group in their perceptions of interest, enjoyment, and aesthetics. The weekly assessment of student situational interest indicated that the experimental group students' situational interests were well maintained by two leading learning activities: demonstrations and hands-on experiments with novelty and aesthetic experience. The above results provide empirical evidence to support the theory of interest development, which proposes that the development goes through a cumulative and progressive procedure.