Abstract

Everyone implicitly understands it. Everyone recognises its importance. It is clearly apart of learning and thereby education. That said, where does “getting students interested” figure within instructors’ class/course organisation? Is it as important as the knowledge/skills development components of teaching?

This presentation will begin with a thorough review of the development of our academic understanding of interest. The discussion will then review my research examining the role of individual differences within interest. From this general test of interest development, I will proceed to the presentation of an interest model, explicitly designed to support instruction within secondary and tertiary education. Two initial tests, which are currently under-review, will then be presented. I will conclude with the review of beta-software developed for the micro-analytic measurement of interest and a discussion of future directions for the field and my research programme.