Building on and extending existing research, this article proposes a 4-phase model of interest development. The model describes 4 phases in the development and deepening of learner interest: triggered situational interest, maintained situational interest, emerging (less-developed) individual interest, and well-developed individual interest. Affective as well as cognitive factors are considered. Educational implications of the proposed model are identified.

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An inductive model is proposed that suggests that support for the development and deepening of interest can be aided by knowledge of identity development. The model suggests that instructional practice would be usefully informed were educators (e.g., teachers, parents, museum curators, counselors) to have information about both the phase of a learner's interest and age-related expectations about their identity development, when working to promote learning of particular disciplinary content. Research describing phases in the development of interest and the age-related challenges and expectations specific to self-representation is reviewed, followed by evidence from the literature that provides preliminary support for the model. Research directions needed to challenge and refine the model follow.

In this article, we discuss the contribution of observational methods to understanding the processes involved in triggering interest and establishing engagement. We begin by reviewing the literatures on interest and engagement, noting their similarities, differences, and the utility to each of better understanding the triggering process. We then provide background information about observational methods and a case illustration of their use in a post hoc analysis of observation records collected during an out-of-school biology workshop.In conclusion, we consider the advantages and limitations of observational methods. We suggest that they can offer unique insight into the triggering process. In the post hoc analysis, this includes information about multiple, co-occurring triggers for interest and variation in responses to triggers based on learner characteristics. It is acknowledged that observational methods are not sufficient, but they are necessary; they provide essential detail, especially for understanding the triggering process.

Interests of young children (2.9 to 4.2 years of age) were naturalistically identified through patterns of attention in the preschool classroom. These interests were subsequently related to performance in three experimental tasks assessing (a) the direction of attentional shift to items in the peripheral visual field, (b) the level of recognition of previously encountered pictures, and (c) recall of previously presented objects. Interests were found to be strong, relatively well focused, and individually variable. In addition, a child's particular interests appeared to be a powerful determinant of the direction of attentional shift, level of recognition, and likelihood of recall. Findings are interpreted in terms of a cognitive/affective conceptualization of interest as a central feature of the knowledge and value systems that individuals bring to the task of organizing experience and memory.Recent discussions of attention and memory have begun to focus on subject variables. Craik (1979), for example, suggested that compatibility between information to be stored and subjects' existing knowledge structures may influence elaboration of the information and the distinctiveness with which it is subsequently encoded. In a tetrahedral model specifying variables that affect the child's evolving memory system, Jenkins (1979; see also Bransford, 1979;Brown, 1982) pointed to subject characteristics such as knowledge, purpose, and interest as critical sources of variance in memory.The present research was designed to investigate attention and memory as a function of the last of these subject variables-interest. Individual differences in interest and their effect on the processing of information are a matter of common observation. Two children, for example, can walk through a park and This report is based on portions of a dissertation submitted by the first author to the Department of Education and Child Development, Bryn Mawr College.

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