Engagement and Performance in Physics: The role of class instructional strategies, and student's personal and situational interest

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse situational and personal interest in Physics, to establish how both are affected by two instructional strategies (provide opportunities of choice, and make explicit the relevance of contents), and to determine how strategies and interest influenced engagement, disaffection, and performance. Participants were 430 second-year science-technology Baccalaureate students (52.4% girls). Structural equation models corroborated the hypotheses: situational and personal interests were improved by these two instructional strategies. Moreover, both modalities of interest and teaching strategies enhanced academic engagement and performance, protecting students from disaffection. Mediated effects between the assessed variables were also significant.