WIT 2003

The Interest-Driven Learning Framework

Danny Edelson & Diana Joseph studied the research literature on motivation and learning, and developed a set of principles for engaging learners in effective ways. The passion curriculum design framework is organized around these principles.

We quickly describe the Interest-Driven Learning Framework and its implications for curriculum design and instruction
We list some ways of motivating students when their interests aren't enough.
We then describe how theVideo Crew passion curriculum works to motivate learners.
Diana gives an example from her own motivation and learning experience.
Finally, we list some specific tools we use to initiate and maintain learner motoivation.

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The Framework

1. Interest matters: Learners are more persistent, and remember more of the deep content of an activity if they are personally interested. In a sense, when we are interested, we have an automatic desire to learn. Think about your own personal interests and consider whether this makes sense.

2. Therefore, it makes sense to design the content of the curriculum to target learner interests, as much as possible.

3. However, two tough problems arise when we try to use learner interests in curriculum development: Coverage, and strength

• The problem of coverage is that not all learning objectives fit neatly into learners' interests. So we need some way of motivating the less-interesting learning objectives.
• The problem of strength is that personal interests are fragile: When the work gets tough, or if social pressures get in the way, or if rewards are offered for something other than the interest, the interest can easily fade away.So we need some way of motivating students when their interests waver.

4. Motivations such as avoiding difficulty, pleasing others, and rewards can be very powerful in guiding what learners do. The problem is that these motivations do not come with an automatic desire to learn -- learners might act on them, but they might not be drawn to learning. Worse, these motivations can actually distract from interest, potentially reducing desire to learn. Therefore, it makes sense to adjust the "context" of the curriculum -- the challenges, the social arrangements, the rewards, etc., to support the interest. To highlight this goal, we refer to these kinds of motivators "context-based" motivation.

5. Use the context-based motivators to initiate your students' interests, if you think they'll find it hard to see what's interesting until they get going on the activities. Use context-based motivators to maintain your students' interests, if you think their interest might waver due to the difficulty, the length, or the details of the work. One way to initiate motivation is to help your students see what is surprising about the ideas in your curriculum. For example, in a physics unit on laws of motion, interest might be initiated through a catapult-building activity. Milestones such as meaningful deadlines, performances, and contests are useful ways of maintaining motivation. More techniques for initiation and maintenance.

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What does this mean we should do in instruction?

Remind students what each activity has to do with their own interests. Encourage students to ask "why am I doing this?" and link your answer to what they care about now.

Provide rewards in the form of very specific positive feedback that is tied to their interests. Provide rewards that look like the rewards adults get in this field of endeavor.

Adjust the challenge level of the activities to the students' needs -- let them play to their strengths (that will keep them interested), and push them a little in areas where you want them to learn more. Learn what has your students feel competent and confident.

Set up groups in your classrooms so that your students get to feel obligations and desires for affiliation in ways that serve your curricular goals. Create group activities that just won't work unless everyone contributes. Consider whether it will be more effective for your students to work with their friends, and the people they want to be like.

Consider creating identities that you know your students would want. For example, in Janet's meteors curriculum, she might create a Star Expert identity that students can earn when they demonstrate certain kinds of learning

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Context-based motivators

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A curriculum example: Video Crew and Interest-Driven Learning

In this section we describe how the Interest-Driven Learning Framework is used in the Video Crew curriculum design

Interest matters, therefore it makes sense to target learner interests

In the Video Crew curriculum, interest comes up in two ways: The students are interested in making videos, and they get to choose the topics for their projects. All of the activities are designed to help students see how the activities serve their interests.

Personal interests are fragile, therefore it makes sense to support interest with context-based motivation

The Video Crew curriculum supports context based motivation through projects and certifications. Projects are designed so that they provide both structure and choice. They also provide a range of challenges -- teachers can assign students to roles (or encourage them to take on roles) that play to their strengths, and/or push them to learn beyond their current capacities. Certifications provide a form of reward that fits within the goals of the curriculum. They are more structured than projects, but still permit a certain degree of freedom.

Use context-based motivators to initiate and maintain motivation

The Video Crew uses certifications as an important maintainer of motivation. Deadlines along the way to the culminating activity also provide this as a source. A key initiator is the idea of a "speed project:" Students are given 20 minutes to produce a video. This short time period provides a very intense burst of motivation. Example of a speed project (used in a course for adults)

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A personal example

From Diana: I'm very interested in karate right now, and my interest makes me want to learn -- I'm driven to do all kinds of things that serve that goal. Not only does I work hard in my karate class, I also buy martial arts books, practice at home between classes, and talks about karate with my friends. When things get tough in karate class, or when I get frustrated, or when I think I'm not learning as fast as my friends, my interest seems to dwindle.

Luckily, my teachers design their instruction to help cope with this problem: They adjust the level of challenge so that "orange belts" (advanced beginners) like me have activities that are just hard enough to be interested, while more "brown belts" (very advanced students) have more challenging ways of doing the same activity, and "white belts" (beginners) have much easier activities. This way I can manage the work, and I can see myself making progress.

They also offer rewards that fit very well with the culture and traditions of karate -- there are ceremonies associated with advancing progress, and they are careful to encourage me in very specific ways.

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Initiation and maintenance techniques

In passion curriculum design, we expect that learner interest will flag over an extended period of time, as well as in the face of difficulty. We also expect that at the beginning of any project, learners will be faced with learning objectives whose connection to the theme of interest is not yet salient. We therefore use several specific techniques as initiators and maintainers to support motivation when necessary.

These include “Speed projects,” contests, and interim checkpoints.
Speed projects are intended to exploit progress (deadline pressure) and challenge motivation in order to encourage students to engage with and practice particular skills that might not arise during the course of ordinary projects. These very short projects (generally less than 30 minutes) are highly structured, and demand high-intensity engagement in order to complete them within the timeframe.Example of a speed project (used in a course for adults)

Contests invoke challenge and status motivation in the context of a competition. In practice, we use these sparingly, as we have seen that learners have very different motivational responses, not entirely in the best interests of their learning.

Interim checkpoints are intended to provide progress motivation. One technique we have used is a “pluses and wishes” critique ritual, learned from a classroom teacher. In this ritual, participants note what they appreciate, as well as what they would change, about other students’ project work. This particular kind of checkpoint also invokes social motivation.

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