A Case Study of Student Judgements of Interest in A Subject

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to report an idiographic case study of how students make a judgement of interest in a subject. This case involved two undergraduate students from the University of Technology Sydney. Their judgements of interests were based on information that described six aspects of a subject rated from very low (0) to very high (9). The six aspects (cues) were whether the subject was challenging, fascinating, the quality of teaching, the usefulness of the text, the quality of the facilities, and the extent to which theory and practice were related. Participants were presented with 60 separate profiles comprising random values of the six cues. They studied the six cues in each profile and then judged their own personal levels of interest on a scale from) (no interest) to 9 (very high interest) based on the information contained each profile. Profiles (N=15) were repeated to determine consistency of judgement of interests. Results were analysed using a single lens model that describes human judgement of interest. Results showed individual differences and complexity in judgement, with an overall emphasis on the quality of teaching.



IFE PsychologIA Vol 9, No1 2001, pp. 74-82