Interest and Its Development, Revisited

This chapter focuses on interest as a cognitive and affective motivational variable that develops and can be supported to develop. It provides an explanation of Hidi and Renninger’s (2006; Renninger & Hidi, 2016) four-phase model of interest development and its relation to other approaches to interest, including interest conceptualized as an emotion, experience, task features, value, or vocational interest, and considers issues pertaining to the identification and measurement of interest as a variable that develops. Following this, the chapter reviews research that tracks interest over time as well as studies that focus on earlier and/or later phases of interest, with particular attention to (a) the triggering of interest in both earlier and later phases of interest, (b) maintaining interest once it has been triggered, (c) fluctuations in interest, and (d) shifts between phases in the development of interest. Two studies of interest development are reviewed in depth and their complementarities are described to illustrate how consideration of study complementarity can provide validation and insight about interest development. Finally, a Punnett square is used to demonstrate how it can enable the identification of relations among a learner’s phase of interest, the achievement demands of the learning environment, and metacognitive awareness, in addition to suggesting next steps for the study of interest development.