Motivating Students by “Personalizing” Learning Around Individual Interests: A Consideration of Theory, Design and Implementation Issues

Authors

Candace WalkingtonFollow
Matthew L. Bernacki PhD, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Editors

Stuart A. Karabenick, Timothy C. Urdan

Document Type

Chapter

Publication Date

2014

Publication Title

Interventions (Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Volume 18)

Publisher

Emerald Group Publishing

Publisher Location

Howard House Wagon Lane Bingley BD16 1WA United Kingdom

Volume

18

First page number:

139

Last page number:

176

Abstract

Purpose

As educators seek ways to enhance student motivation and improve achievement, promising advances are being made in adaptive approaches to instruction. Learning technologies are emerging that promote a high level of personalization of the learning experience. One type of personalization is context personalization, in which instruction is presented in the context of learners’ individual interests in areas like sports, music, and video games. Personalized contexts may elicit situational interest, which can in turn spur motivational and metacognitive states like positive affect and focused attention. Personalized contexts may also allow for concepts to become grounded in prior knowledge by fostering connections to everyday activity. In this Chapter, we discuss the theoretical, design, and implementation issues to consider when creating interventions that utilize context personalization to enhance motivation.

Keywords

Computer-based Curricula; (context) Personalization; Funds of Knowledge; Individual Interest; Learning Technology; Situational Interest

Disciplines

Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Methods | Educational Psychology

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Walkington, C., Bernacki, M. L. (2014). Motivating Students by “Personalizing” Learning Around Individual Interests: A Consideration of Theory, Design and Implementation Issues. In Stuart A. Karabenick, Timothy C. Urdan, Interventions (Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Volume 18), 18 139-176. Howard House Wagon Lane Bingley BD16 1WA United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing.