Mathematical and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)- related skills are important both for individuals and society (Bøe et al., 2011). Developing effective instructional practices that support student interest, and supporting teachers to use these, should be prioritized to increase participation in STEM education.
Both instructional practices and teachers play an important role in students’ interest development, but before interest development can proceed, interest must be triggered (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). Theoretically, instructional practices need to increase attention, positive affect, and perceived value to trigger and maintain interest (see Linnenbrink-Garcia et al., 2010). Presumably, this can be achieved through building meaningful connections to learning materials (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). Storytelling, especially self-generated stories, should theoretically support meaningful connections with the learning material, and support students’ interest, and also autonomy. However, self-generation of stories may be a difficult and cognitively challenging task.
The present dissertation examines whether and how storytelling may be used to support the experience of interest and the initial phases of interest development in mathematics. The dissertation also aims to increase the understanding on how to support teachers to develop interest themselves, and to support their own students’ interest, by examining teacher interest, teacher beliefs, and instructional practices that may be used in class to increase and support student interest. These aims were addressed in three papers presenting the different studies conducted as part of this project.
Paper 1 examined whether self-generated (student-generated) stories increased interest more than ready-made (teacher-generated) stories about graphs for tertiary students recruited online. Experiment 1 (N = 506) showed that a self-generated story triggered interest more than a ready-made story. Experiment 2 (N = 508) replicated the finding on triggered interest, but also showed that a self-generated story triggered and maintained interest more than reading an exposition. Importantly, storytelling practices, and especially self-generated stories predicted higher perceived autonomy, which in turn may explain the association between storytelling and interest.
Paper 2 examined whether word problems increased situational interest compared to math tasks without a narrative context (math-tasks-only), in a sample of student teachers (N = 256) at Norwegian educational institutions. As in Paper 1, we examined whether self-generation (writing and solving a word problem) increased situational interest more than (reading and solving) a ready-made word problem. The results suggested that adding narrative context to math tasks (i.e., word problems) increased situational interest compared to math-tasks-only. However, self-generated word problems did increase situational interest compared to math tasks without a narrative context only for students with high mathematical self-concept. The ready-made word problems increased situational interest compared to math tasks without a narrative context for students with low mathematical self-concept. Moreover, several dimensions of participants’ teacher interest were associated with situational interest.
Paper 3 examined whether teachers used storytelling and other personalized practices to increase and support student interest. Furthermore, the paper addressed teacher beliefs about student interest and related variables that may predict the use of different teaching practices. Study 1 contained a survey asking teachers (N = 224) about storytelling and other personalized practices that may be used in class to increase and support interest. Study 2 contained a survey asking teachers (N = 435) to describe in detail what they do to increase and support interest. Both studies asked teachers how frequently they used each practice and measured teacher beliefs about student interest and related variables. Study 1 showed that storytelling was used relatively frequently, but question asking was the most frequently used type of practice, followed by seductive details, and utility-value interventions. Teachers therefore use empirically supported utility-value practices in the classroom, but other empirically supported practices were used less (such as choice and context personalization). Study 2 showed that storytelling practices was rarely described when teachers were asked to report what they do in class to increase interest. Instead, teachers often described complex practices, especially hands-on activities. Both studies showed that frequency of use of the practices was predicted by how easy the teachers perceived the practice. Moreover, specific teacher beliefs also predicted use, particularly whether the teachers believed that the practice increased student interest and positive experiences.
The main practical implication of the present project is that storytelling may be used as an easy and effective tool for teachers to increase their students’ situational interest, without costs to performance or by reducing interest via cognitive load. However, educational institutions should account for student teachers’ mathematical self-concept and teacher interests when designing and implementing storytelling practices. The main theoretical implication is that we showed that autonomy is one mechanism involved in triggering and maintaining interest, while cognitive load is not involved in the relationship between storytelling and interest, thus building on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), cognitive load theory (Sweller, 2011), and interest development theory (Hidi & Renninger, 2006).