Situational interest: Its multifaceted structure in the secondary school mathematics classroom.

Abstract

The present study attempted to tackle a hurdle that continues to plague the research on interest: the lack of an adequate theoretical model. In particular, the tenability of a hypothetical construct of interest as it applies to the secondary mathematics classroom was proposed and empirically assessed. Building on previous theoretical work, the study used qualitative and quantitative methodologies to first develop a model and then assess its construct validity. The results indicate that it is useful to distinguish between personal and situational interest. Furthermore, the results indicate that the structure of situational interest is multifaceted, clarifying 5 subfacets of situational interest in the high school mathematics classroom