Academic Interests and Attitudes:
Definition and Conceptual Background
A person’s relatively stable or enduring
predisposition, positive affective orientation, and tendency to
persevere when working on certain specific academic content or task
domains.
“In the minds of many, a person’s
interest is linked to his or her achievement with a particular
subject content such as ballet, mathematics, etc.” (Renninger
& Hidi, 2002, p. 173). Theoretically, interests are often
defined as the focused interaction between an individual and an
object (or class of objects, ideas, etc.) that results in an
enduring affective disposition or orientation towards the object(s)
(Corno et al., 2002; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). Individual
interests are conceptualized as consisting of feeling- and value-
related valences. “Feeling- related valences refer to the
feelings that are associated with an object or an
activity—feelings such as involvement, stimulation, or flow.
Value-related valences refer to the attribution of personal
significance or importance to an object or activity” (Eccles
& Wigfiled, 2002, p. 114). In the context of school
learning, the development, maintenance, and enhancement of positive
student-academic content domain relationships (i.e., interests) can
improve the quality of learning and promote intrinsic
motivation. Thus, academic interests should not only be
considered important facilitators of academic outcomes, but also as
valued educational outcomes in their own right (Corno et al.,
2002).
Recently, interest theory research has postulated
a differentiation between individual and situational
interest. Individual interest reflects a relatively
stable or enduring predisposition, evaluative orientation, and
tendency to persevere when working on certain specific content or
task domains. In contrast, spur-of-the-moment interests,
often triggered “in the moment,” are classified as
situational interests (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002;
Renninger & Hidi, 2002). Examples of situational
interests would be a momentary interest in a topic after observing
a television show, hearing a speaker, or catching a portion of a
video clip while strolling through an electronics store.
Situational interest is not necessarily positive (e.g., a
child’s focused attention on graphic violence on the evening
news) and typically requires little knowledge of the content domain
or experience. Situational interests can evolve into more
stable individual interests (Renninger & Hidi, 2002). In
contrast, an individual interest in geology is inferred when a
student has acquired a stored geology knowledge base and a positive
affective feeling towards geology that “leads to informed
reengagement and the ability and desire to work with difficulties
that might arise” (Renninger & Hidi, 2002, p. 174).
Individual academic content or procedural interests,
characteristics that reflect the enduring and stable aspects of a
student’s interests, are the focus in this
paper.
The value-laden component of interests can also be
conceptualized as attitudes which are overt or covert
expressions of positive or negative internal states (Corno et al.,
2002). Although the theoretical and research literature on
the structure of attitudes and beliefs could argue for the separate
treatment of academic attitudes, we blend interests and attitudes
together since individual interests can be thought of as positive
attitudes towards a topic. In this document, academic
interests and attitudes are defined as a student’s
relatively stable or enduring predisposition, positive affective
orientation, and tendency to persevere when working on certain
specific academic content or task domains (Corno et al., 2002;
Eccles & Wigfiled, 2002; Renninger & Hidi,
2002).
