Eine Mikroanalyse von Chemieunterricht: Einsatz und Perzeption von Triggern für situationales Interesse

The aim to foster students’ interest by designing corresponding lessons for most students is a long-term goal within educational research. To do so, it is important to consider different approaches to promote interest. Following the Four-Phase-Model of interest development, situational interest is the first step towards a stable individual interest. By focusing on the promotion of situational interest as a possible precursor of individual interest, students are given an initiation to develop a sound interest in the long run. However, the extensive literature on fostering (situational) interest is divers, but rarely considers the combined effects of so-called interest triggers or the possible differential perception of triggers depending on learner characteristics. It seemed necessary to step back and observe authentic chemistry lessons in order to analyse, which attempts to foster students’ situational interest are already implemented in classrooms. By investigating the effects of triggers on different groups of students (high, middle- and low-interested) via qualitative content analysis, results indicate that some triggers have indeed stronger effects on low-interested students, such as everyday contexts, while other triggers have almost the same effect on each group, such as most hands-on activities. The results and derived hypotheses are summarised and discussed.