What really elicits learners’ situational interest in learning activities: a scoping review of six most commonly researched types of situational interest sources in educational settings

Abstract The importance of interest in learning has long been recognized. Considering the beneficial effects of situational interest (e.g., its potential to develop into individual interest) and its primary dependence on environmental features, numerous empirical studies have explored various situational interest sources (e.g., novelty, utility-value) within learning activities. This review aims to systematically summarize the situational interest sources identified by existing empirical studies based on the four-phase model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger Educational Psychologist , 41 (2), 111–127, 2006) and to synthesize the influence of these sources on learners’ situational interest. Underpinned by the five-stage framework by Arksey and O’Malley ( International Journal of Social Research Methodology , 8 (1), 19–32, 2005) and PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR, Tricco et al., Annals of Internal Medicine , 169 (7), 467–473, 2018), the current review examined 35 empirical studies on situational interest sources between 2006 and 2022. Six types of situational interest sources (utility-value/relevance/meaningfulness, novelty, cognitive activation/complexity, social interaction, hands-on activity, choice) were extracted from the empirical studies reviewed. The effects of these six types of situational interest sources in different conditions and for different types of learners were demonstrated in the review. Latent sources underlying the proposed types of situational interest sources were also examined. The psychological, cognitive or behavioural rationales underlying the effect of each type of situational interest source and the implications for future research and practice were discussed at the end of the review.