From curiosity to interest: The use of effective pedagogy to develop students’ long-term interest

Interest is an elusive state, one which everyone experiences at some point but one which is often difficult to define.  A wide range of terms are used by some authors as alternatives to ‘interest’, including: attention, awareness, concentration, curiosity, emotion, attitude, and motivation.  All of these can be considered aspects of interest and are reflected in the Oxford Dictionary definition of the term, however, they are themselves distinct states of being.  As a result, it was necessary, in the context of this research, to understand the psychological aspect of ‘interest’ and the attempts that have been made to define, sub-divide and model the development of this construct.  The majority of the work in this area draws a distinction between interest, as a ‘transient affective state’, often referred to as Situational Interest and Interests, or Individual Interest, as ‘self-sustaining motives that lead people to engage with certain objects, activities, or ideas for