Summary and Movie Connection

For my reading assignment I read the article, “The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41, 111-127.” As I was reading this article I started to understand the four phases in interest theory which included triggered situational interest, maintained situational interest, emerging individual interest, and well-developed individual interest. Triggered situational interest is the psychological state of interest where a student’s attention is grabbed and become interested in the subject. Next, comes maintained situational interest where the student becomes focused in the subject of interest and wants to pay attention. Emerging individual interest is the beginning phase of re-engagement of the content or subject. At this point in the stage they start to understand the content and start to show signs of major importance. The last phase is well-developed individual interest. At this phase they have a good amount of background knowledge of the content. This phase will give them a more personal liking to the subject. The student feels well informed about the new interest they once had. All of these phases are both used in the cognitive process and is a very effective way to gain interest. This type of learning process can be positive or negative depending on the person. To go through the process of these phases there are different levels of effort, self-regulation, motivation, and self-efficacy.

As I was learning all of these concepts and ideas for the interest theory I started to wonder about my own experiences and how I can personally relate to the article. A couple of days after I had read the article I watched a movie thinking I would enjoy it and I was interested in it. To my surprise, the four phase model was presented in the movie. This movie was called “The Happening”. It was a scary movie, so I was bound to like it. In the first ten minutes of the movie one of the main characters who was played by Mark Walberg was a middle school science teacher. He was introducing the class about honey bees and the way they live in our environment. As he was explaining to the class he was trying to get certain students involved. One boy in the class was not paying any attention so he called on him. The young boy was too catch up in his looks and did not care about honey bees. The teacher explained that as the boy grows his nose and looks will change. His nose will get bigger and grow. The boy then realized that maybe looks were not everything and deciding to answer the question. The teacher was shocked to see that the student was interest in the topic and gave a good answer to the teacher’s question. This example shows the approach the teacher took to trigger the student’s attention then by maintaining it he asked the student a question. As the student answered the question his ideas and thoughts were emerging in individual interest. The student’s information was correct giving him a well-developed knowledge of the subject. I will also give the link to the movie (http://www.megavideo.com/?v=X45MP6K4). It is in the first ten minutes of the film. This experience showed me how easily these steps can be seen in a daily lifestyle and how you can recognize them anywhere you go.