Ich mag, was ich kann oder kann ich, was ich mag?: Über das Zusammenspiel von Interesse, Freude und Konzeptwissen im Fach Chemie

Fostering students’ interest and enjoyment as well as the acquisition of a profound understanding of chemical concepts are crucial goals of chemical education in secondary school. These motivational and cognitive variables do not only shape students behavior in the classroom, but also outside of school. Therefore, this study examines to what extent enjoyment, conceptual knowledge, and individual interest influence each other. For this purpose, we conducted a longitudinal survey study assessing individual interest, enjoyment, and conceptual knowledge of N = 756 students in German secondary schools (52% female, age at the beginning of the study = 14.7) in Grades 9, 10, and 11. By means of latent structural equation modeling, we studied the development of and the interplay between these three constructs, i.e. effects on individual change over time. Results from univariate analyses show a slight decrease of students’ individual interest, a moderate decrease of their enjoyment, and concomitantly a large increase of their conceptual knowledge. Pertaining to the interplay between these constructs, bivariate latent change score models indicate bidirectional interactions in all pairwise constellations. When simultaneously taking into account all three constructs, trivariate analyses indicate reciprocal relations between enjoyment and conceptual knowledge, whereas only directed effects of enjoyment and conceptual knowledge on individual interest persists. Overall, these results underscore the relevance of motivational variables for learning and suggest potential benefits of a more systematic integration of students’ interests into chemistry education.