Abstracts - Earli

Interest for historical matters is an important objective of history education. The person-objecttheory (POI) of interest conceptualizes interest as a specific person-object relationship that ischaracterized by value-related and feeling-related valences. Krapp (2002) suggested that theemerging of feeling-related valences is closely related to the satisfaction of the three basicpsychological needs identified by Deci and Ryan (2000). Feelings of competence, autonomy andsocial-relatedness are described to be essential to interest development. Theoretical models ofinterest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006) identify situational interest as providing a basis foran emerging individual interest. The repeated engagement with particular classes of content overtime may lead to a well-developed interest. Instructional conditions should facilitate both: Theemerging and maintaining of situational interest by providing meaningful and personally involvingactivities and the deepening of well-developed interest by providing room for interest-relatedactivities and challenging learning tasks. Building on this theoretical framework, this paper aims tohighlight the relationship between students’ historical interest and different features of historyinstruction in Swiss Secondary I classrooms (grade 9). Data collection for the present studyincluded a sample of 90 classes and their teachers from the German part of Switzerland. Amongthe 90 classes, students’ general interest in historical matters is average. Differences betweenschool tracks and gender were found. The comparison of students’ interest for historical themesand actual topics taught in the 9th grade classrooms reveals that boys’ interest is better supportedby current instruction. Students’ perceptions of interest supportive teaching conditions are ratherpositive and show significant effects on students’ general interest. Video analyses of interestsupportiveconditions in current history lessons are under construction aiming to investigate therelationship between students’ situational interest facilitated by instructional features and generalhistorical interest.M 1131 August 2007 14:35 - 15:55Room: 1.71 PóczaPaper SessionTeacher educationChair:Fritz Oser, University of Fribourg, SwitzerlandTeaching competency of teacher training students. A video-analysis.Corinne Wyss, School of Teacher’s Education Zurich, SwitzerlandMirjam Kocher, School of Teacher’s Education Zurich, SwitzerlandThe conventional Schools of Teacher Education in Switzerland as well as in the surroundingcountries are in a changing phase. Teacher Education is part of a critical-controversial discussionand new ways and criteria for it are searched. With the definition of standards the quality ofTeacher Education and the teaching competencies of the students should be secured. Indeed, thequestion, what competencies student (should) develop, is not clarified. The research project tries toapproach and analyse the question which teaching competencies students acquire during theireducation. A longitudinal study reveals how the teaching competencies are changing withprogressive Teacher Education. The coeval cross study identifies differences between the students(novices) and the teaching training mentors (experts). The analysis is proceeding on the base ofvideotaped lessons, which are taken during the initial teacher training.– 705 –