The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the situational, individual and general academic interest scale for Korean adolescents. To achieve this goal, this study examined the concepts and definitions of academic interest by considering previous studies, selects constituent factors of academic interest, and develops and validates each item to measure them.
In order to solve research questions, this study has sampled 959 middle and high school students to examine and verify their situational and individual academic interest scale, general academic interest scale, academic interest simpleness scale, academic self-efficacy scale, achievement orientation scale and academic achievement level in Korean language and mathematics.
In order to measure the domain-specificity of the situational academic interest and individual academic interest in this study, the scales were prepared by examining the situational and individual interests in Korean language and mathematics respectively. In addition, based on the previous studies that such academic interests are caused by the interactions between domains of human cognition, emotion, and value, three constituent factors of the academic interest scale were set with cognition, emotion, and value.
To develop situational academic interest scale of Korean language, 22 items were finally selected through an exploratory analysis among 24 preliminary scale items of the situational academic interest in Korean language: cognition (n=6); emotion (n=8); and value (n=8). The internal consistency by each constituent factor showed .878 for cognition, .931 for emotion and .942 for value. To develop situational academic interest scale of mathematics, 21 items were finally selected through an exploratory analysis among 24 preliminary scale items of the situational academic interest in mathematics: cognition (n=7); emotion (n=7); and value (n=7). The internal consistency by each constituent factor showed .950 for cognition, .957 for emotion and .967 for value.
To develop individual academic interest scale of Korean language, 23 items were finally selected through an exploratory analysis among 25 preliminary scale items of the individual academic interest in Korean language: cognition (n=7); emotion (n=8); and value (n=8). The internal consistency by each constituent factor of individual academic interest of Korean language showed .919 for cognition, .957 for emotion and .945 for value. To develop individual academic interest scale of mathematics, 21 items were finally selected through an exploratory analysis among 25 preliminary scale items of the individual academic interest in mathematics: cognition (n=6); emotion (n=8); and value (n=7). The internal consistency by each constituent factor of individual academic interest of mathematics showed .943 for cognition, .975 for emotion and .954 for value.
To develop general academic interest scale 20 items were finally selected through an exploratory analysis among 24 preliminary scale items of the general academic interest: cognition (n=5); emotion (n=7); and value (n=8). The internal consistency by each constituent factor of general academic interest showed .903 for cognition, .949 for emotion and .956 for value.
This study is expected to be helpful for the development of academic interest research and the direction of academic interest development for Korean adolescents. In addition, there is a need for research on academic interest targeting various domains and learners.