Abstract:

Individual interest is a psychological construct associated with long-term commitment and it is considered a predictor of motivation and academic performance. Previous studies suggest that individual interest is a predisposition of the individual and therefore depends to a greater extent on personal characteristics, desires, needs, experiences and prior knowledge. However, certain features of the environment, such as the development of practical activities in a learning setting, may also influence it. On this basis, the aim was to measure the impact of a system of learning activities on the individual interest of 44 students in the Expression and Communication Module of the Higher-Level Training Cycle in Early Childhood Education. During five working sessions, participatory and interactive activities were carried out, including the creation of stories, puppets, games and debates. Individual interest was measured before and after the intervention using an eight-item questionnaire. Three levels of individual interest were established according to the sum of the scores obtained in each item: High (32-40 points), Medium (20-31 points) and Low or None (8-19 points). The high rank increased from 59.09 % of students (pre-intervention) to 72.73 % (post-intervention), the medium rank decreased from 40.91 % to 20.45 % and the low or none rank increased from 0 % to 4.55 %. There was a 2.27 % error rate. In conclusion, it can be said that the development of participatory activities in the Expression and Communication module contributed to improving the individual interest of the majority of students. However, it has been considered to investigate the causes of the loss of individual interest of 4.55 % of the students.

Keywords:

Individual interest, participatory activities, expression and communication.