South East Christian

Kāhui Ako
Forward in Faith Together
The Power of Interest and
Curiosity
Jessica Robinson
Welcome

Tena Koe and welcome to “The Power of interest and Curiosity”.

My name is Jess Robinson, and I’m based at St Mark’s Catholic School. At St Mark’s, I teach
Year 1 and 2. I’m also a WST with our Kaahui Ako.

This session is a continuation of the keynote from this morning, but focuses specifically on
the first element of the model we have referred to as Academic Mindsets.

More specifically we are going to take an in-depth look at the agency related factors of Self-
relevancy.

The follow on session is called The Belonging and Belief which focuses on self-concept and
self-efficacy, facilitated by Andrew Burgh.
Academic Mindsets
Towards a Learner Agency Model
+ Socio-Cultural Factors including collaboration / interpersonal relationships

M P S B A A

Academic Academic Learning Learning Academic Achievement &

Mindsets Perseverance Strategies Behaviours Content Wellbeing

Mindsets are a Positive mindsets lead Persevering students Motivated, persevering Academic content refers ...researchers believe that
student's beliefs about to perseverance, the employ learning students with strategies to what is explicitly students are more likely
themselves in relation to ability to stay focused strategies to aid in the tend to exhibit positive taught to students in the to achieve better grades
academic work. These on a goal despite cognitive work (of learning behavior (the classroom. This includes in school (academic
can be conceptualised obstacles (self- thinking, remembering, or visible, outward signs content knowledge, performance) and a
by: self-concept, self- discipline / grit) and to learning) (Farrington et that a student is academic skills and greater degree of
efficacy and self- forgo distractions to al., 2012). Self-regulation engaged and making enduring understandings. success and wellbeing in
relevancy (value) which prioritise higher pursuits (learning strategies) can effort to learn When factors M, P, S and the ‘real world’ when they
in turn foster increased over lower pleasures be classified in several (Farrington et al., 2012). B combine with academic leave school.
motivation. (self-control). (Dweck, ways including All other factors work content...
Walton, & Cohen, 2011). organisational and through behaviors to
metacognitive. affect performance.
Academic Mindsets

One way of understanding learner agency is to see it as a construct comprising several

non-cognitive factors. (NCFs are aspects of education which are ‘not tested on the test’
but which affect test scores. Eg. Absenteeism or task completion).

Our model gives emphasis to an important group of non-cognitive factors which

Farrington et al. (2012) call Academic Mindsets.

Academic mindsets are a student's attitudes and beliefs about themselves in

relation to their academic work at school.

In other words…
“Academic mindsets are
deeply connected to faith,
that is, what a student
chooses to believe about
themselves.”
Academic Mindsets

A student’s academic mindsets are an essential prerequisite in their learning because

they are associated with increased motivation (the energy that results in engagement
with learning) and can lead to higher levels of academic achievement.

M Motivation + Achievement
“Attitude is a little
thing that makes a
big difference.”
Academic Mindsets

Most importantly, there is considerable evidence to suggest that academic mindsets are
malleable to both interventions and classroom context.

This means that researchers believe that teachers are able to foster increased levels of
learner through academic mindsets by:
- Planning and using teaching interventions to increase students sense of agency
- Designing and creating agentic classroom environments where students can express
their agency

We call these agency boosters.

“I want to do this.”
Self-Relevancy
Self-Relevancy

Self-relevancy or value is a student's belief about the importance, usefulness and interest
of a particular subject or learning task.

Self-relevancy with respect to learning seems to have three aspects:

- Utility Value (perceived usefulness)
- Attainment Value (sense of achievement)
- Intrinsic Value (enjoyment of learning)
Self-Relevancy

A student who is self-aware is starting to develop their understanding of what is important to

them and what they are interested in. Self-awareness is therefore related to Self-relevancy or
a student's beliefs about the importance and / or interest of an academic learning task.

A student’s perception of the value of a task is important in relation to motivation (Schunk et

al., 2014) because students are more motivated to learn when they perceive a task to be
inherently interesting (Farrington et al., 2012). This in turn increases a students' sense of
ownership and control over their learning.

Davis (2018) has written about three types of value: utility value; attainment value and
intrinsic value (also known as 'interest' or 'curiosity').
Academic Mindsets
A student’s academic mindsets are an essential prerequisite in their learning because
they are associated with increased motivation (the energy that results in
engagement with learning) and can lead to higher levels of academic achievement.

Intrinsic
Attainment
Utility
R Motivation Achievement
Booster 1: Intrinsic Value
Intrinsic Value

Intrinsic Value is defined as a student's enjoyment of the task (Davis, 2018).

Students are motivated to learn when they perceive a task to be inherently interesting.
(Farrington et al., 2012)

Learners are naturally motivated to learn when they perceive a task to be inherently
interesting (McCombs, 1991, 1993, 1994). Bruner (1960) noted that “interest in the
material is the best stimulus to learning” (p. 14).

Note: Also known as Interest or Curiosity

 B
O
Intrinsic Value - High Interest Tasks O
S
T
Make lessons stimulating and relevant while knowing that some students may hide their interest. E
R
Teachers can increase curiosity by knowing their students’ interests. Here’s the formula:
understand your students interests; provide them with choices; and then give them some high
challenge tasks.

Let them collaborate with others of the same interest (Davis, 2018).

High
Understand Provide
Challenge Collaborate
Interest Choice
Task
Intrinsic Value - High Interest Task Examples

Current
Statistics Boy Heavy
Obsession:
Unit Class
FIFA
Intrinsic Value - High Interest Task Examples

Current
Statistics Boy Heavy
Obsession:
Unit Class
FIFA

Let’s use their interest to boost their learning.

To make FIFA a High-Yield Activity, let’s turn it into a World-Cup style tournament, with
individual students representing different countries.After each game, staff can help teens
compile and analyze their performance statistics based on what happened in the game,
and determine their current standing in tournament rankings.
Intrinsic Value - My WST Project

Inquiry Question
How can learner agency increase motivation and engagement in disengaged learners.

Intervention
Take a weekly pilot group with the purpose of increasing student academic
motivation. This will be completed through the implementation of a wider variety of
co-constructed learning tasks that stimulate student interest.
Intrinsic Value - My WST Project

What are my students Where do my students have

interested in? low self efficacy and value?
Intrinsic Value - My WST Project

Student 1
Sports Multiplication
Facts
What do you do to
capture the
interest of your
students?
Booster 2: Attainment Value
Attainment Value

Attainment Value is considered is the sense of achievement that is experienced when

students are able to complete a task successfully (Davis, 2018).
Attainment Value

It’s the middle of the afternoon and your motivation is seriously lagging. Nevermind working your
way through the lengthy to-do list that’s next to you—at this point, the thought of answering even a
single email feels equivalent to running a marathon.

What do you do? If you’re like a lot of people (guilty as charged), you might just give into your
unfocused mood and peruse YouTube or social media. Or, maybe you’ll just lay your head down on
your desk and send up a prayer for a much-needed kick in the pants.

Well, peel your forehead off of your keyboard, because God has already given is a way to boost our
motivation. It all comes back to a little something called dopamine.
What is Dopamine?

Dopamine is more than just the feel-good neurotransmitter. It’s actually more closely related to
motivation. Basically, it’s a brain chemical that doesn’t just respond to rewards—it encourages us
to seek them.

Without digging into a complex neuroscience lesson, it works like this: Your brain learns what
activities lead to pleasurable feelings and releases dopamine to inspire you to act and obtain that
reward once again. At that point, you’ll likely experience another spike in dopamine.
What is Dopamine?
“Low levels of dopamine make people and other animals less likely to work for things, so it has
more to do with motivation and cost/benefit analyses than pleasure itself.” John Salamone

So, saying that dopamine causes pleasure is an oversimplified view. Dopamine actually does the
bulk of its work before you feel that satisfaction. It’s the motivation neurotransmitter.

That can obviously have major implications for your productivity. If you can hack your dopamine
levels, then you can trick your brain into seeking a pleasurable experience (like crossing something
off your to-do list) and use neuroscience to get more done.
How to Increase Your Dopamine Levels

Praise and Scaffold Big

Get Physical
Recognition Tasks

B
Get a Good O
Nights Sleep Play Some Tunes
O
S
T
E
R
Explanations

Provide lucid explanations of the content being covered and clear instructions so that
students have a greater chance of successful completion of the task. This also relates to
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development.

B
O
O
S
T
E
R
What is one way
you can use the
dopamine hack
tomorrow?
Booster 3: Utility Value
Utility Value

Utility Value is the perceived usefulness of the learning

A student's belief about how useful something will be when they have successfully
learned it (Schunk et al., 2014).

A student’s perception of the value of a task is important in relation to motivation

(Schunk et al., 2014).
Utility Value
The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (1990-2013) said Utility value
is how the task relates to future goals.

While students may not enjoy an activity, they may value a later reward or outcome it
produces (Wigfield, 1994). The activity must be integral to their vision of their future, or
it must be instrumental to their pursuit of other goals.

Because goals can play a key role in attaining later outcomes, educators and parents
should help students see beyond the immediate activity to the long-term benefits it
produces.

Teachers need to be able to answer the common query, “Why do we have to study this
stuff?”
Explain the Transfer

Plan lessons which help students to understand the purpose and benefits of what they are
learning (Pressley, 2006).

Relating the learning to ‘real life’ gives context to the relevance of the learning and increases
student motivation.

Also,when students see a connection between academic tasks and their own future goals,
students are more likely to expend persistent effort and exhibit academic behaviors that
support school success (Farrington et al., 2012). B
O
O
This also relates to ‘future orientation’ aspect of Academic Perseverance. S
T
E
R
Utility Value
Research on gifted underachievers has demonstrated the importance of valuing
academic and career goals on students’ eventual reversal of their underachievement.

Peterson (2000) followed achieving and underachieving gifted high school students into
college. She found gifted achievers developed early career direction and focus,
suggesting that having aspirations and future goals may encourage academic
achievement.

Emerick (1992) reported that former underachievers were able to reverse their
underachievement through the development of attainable goals that were both
personally motivating and directly related to academic success.
 Loves boxing and
Tyson Fury is his
Meet L hero
Gypsy
Leaves formal
education after
Year 6

Will work for dad’s

bricklaying
business and one
day take over

When he is unmotivated he
Legal attendance can make teaching extremely
rate of 70% challenging
Feedback

Ask students to give feedback on the usefulness of the activity as this makes them feel
valued in the learning process.

Be specific and ask about the usefulness of the task in comparison to other activities.

Ask students to share their impact stories (Davis, 2018).

B
O
O
S
T
E
R
How can we foster
utility value in a
set curriculum?
Tracking Self-Relevance

https://sites.google.com/elim.school.nz/seckaagency/tracking-agency

We have ONE survey instrument to track all three aspects!

Add your booster

https://sites.google.com/elim.school.nz/seckaagency
Curiosity may have
killed the cat, but
it's good for the
student!