Pedagogy

While I was doing research for a previous class I stumbled across the concept of "Situational Interest" which in layman's terms is novelty. The research into this fits in well with the Constructivist and Connectivist learning theories. As it brings forward the idea that students need to have some sort of interest in a subject for them to have any hope of retaining information on it. The main piece of research that I am building this wiki around is the "Four-Phase Model of Interest Development" as suggested by Suzanne Hidi and K. Ann Renninger. In the article referenced below they describe a model for trying to transform novelty into actual individual interest. Instead of giving up hope that a student will never be interested (in truth they still might not be but it is worth a shot). After the students do that the hope is that they will build the self efficacy needed to keep learning about things that they are actually interested in. Once the students develop that individual interest the teacher can then truly step back and let the students work on their own as they need far less external support.

The stages as suggested by Renniger and Hidi are: 1. Triggered Situational Interest This is the very definition of Novelty. This is where an external stimuli shows students something that piques their interest. Whether that is a video that makes them think that the medium is cool enough that they will want to participate in it or a project that gives the students a sense of accomplishment early on. By doing this you are able to establish that a student can be successful at least at tasks that are seemingly technical but are still relatively easy to accomplish.

2. Maintained Situational Interest This is starting to develop the projects into a longer project. This could be group projects, or any sort of project that builds on their previous experience. Projects like these can contribute to sustaining situational interest longer. The first stage is relatively easy to get going it is once you start getting to/past the point of maintained situational interest that things start to become problematic.

3. Emerging Individual Interest. Based on the previous positive experiences the students will want to work with tools that they are familiar with again. This is where we as teachers can begin to start to lay back and let the student do more of the exploration. This is where students start asking questions out of curiosity and

4. Well Developed Individual Interest This is where the students are able to anticipate the next steps in a project and are able to follow through on them. The students are mostly self sufficient at this point and can work their way through most problems.

Where the connectivist view point works into this is if you have the students start a blog about their course work they will be able to get some of the external support to work through the stages of Interest Development with out having it take up all of your time trying to cater to the individual groups. This will also allow students to focus on each other's work along with their own. This can start to build a sense of community with in your classroom along with the outside world. Through my experiences with teaching the CPT course this semester I have found the groups stay with in their bubbles and don't look to far outside of that bubble while they are working.

Suggested reading (if you would like more in depth information from what I read): Hidi, Suzanne and Renniger, K. Ann, (2006) "The Four-Phase Model of Interest Development", Educational Psychologist, 41: 2, 111-127 Senior, Rose (2010) "Connectivity: A Framework for Understanding Effective Language Teaching in Face-to-face and Online Learning Communities", RELC Journal 2010, 41: 137 Guder, Christopher (2010) "Patrons and Pedagogy: A Look at the Theory of Connectivisim:, Public Services Quarterly, 6: 1, 36-42 Simmons, M. Amber, Page, Melissa, (2010), "Motivating Students through Power and Choice", English Journal, 100.1: 65-69 Hidi, Suzanne, Harackiewicz M. Judith, (2000) "Motivating the Adademically Unmotivated: A Critical Issue for the 21st Century", Review of Educational Research, Vol. 70: 2, 151-179