Most teachers recognize the moment when learners are still physically present but no longer intellectually with us. They may not be confused. They may not be tired. They may not be refusing to participate. They simply are not interested.

This matters because a lack of interest requires a different instructional response than a lack of understanding or a lack of energy. When students are confused, they need clarity, feedback, modeling, or scaffolding. When students are low on energy, they may need movement, pace, or enthusiasm. But when students are unengaged because they are not interested, the teacher’s work is to create intrigue.

In the Marzano Academies CBE Instructional Model, Elements VIf, VIg, and VIh work together as a set of strategies for stimulating interest and intrigue. These elements include presenting unusual information, using friendly controversy, and playing academic games. Together, they help teachers move beyond the assumption that interest is something students either bring to class or do not. Instead, interest becomes something teachers can intentionally design for and monitor.

Why: Interest Opens the Door to Deeper Engagement

Interest is not a decorative feature of instruction. It is one of the pathways by which learners decide that content is worth their attention. And attention is the gateway to their brain. If it is closed, nothing else that happens in the classroom matters. In the Marzano Academies model, engagement is framed as helping students pay attention and feel energized and intrigued (Marzano Academies, 2018). The word intrigued is important. It reminds us that engagement is not only about compliance or participation. Learners are more likely to invest effort in learning when something about the content captures their curiosity, challenges their assumptions, or invites them into meaningful thinking.

This aligns with research on interest development. Hidi and Renninger (2006) describe interest as developing through phases, beginning with triggered situational interest and moving toward more sustained forms of interest. This is useful for classroom teachers because it suggests that interest does not have to be fully present before instruction begins. A teacher can trigger interest through surprise, relevance, controversy, or playful challenge, and then maintain it through meaningful interaction with content.

Element VIf, presenting unusual information, is grounded in this idea. Marzano’s folio describes unusual information as facts and details that are not common knowledge about a topic. Such information naturally stimulates questions and increases interest (Marzano, 2021a). This is consistent with Loewenstein’s (1994) information-gap theory of curiosity, which suggests that curiosity often emerges when people become aware of a gap between what they know and what they want to know. In classroom terms, unusual information creates a productive gap. It gives learners a reason to wonder.

Element VIg, using friendly controversy, adds another source of interest: intellectual tension. Marzano’s folio explains that mild controversy can positively influence learning because it elicits engagement and requires students to provide evidence for their assertions and opinions (Marzano, 2021b). This is not about creating conflict for its own sake. It is about using disagreement as a doorway into evidence, reasoning, perspective-taking, and deeper understanding. Johnson and Johnson (2009) similarly argue that intellectual conflict can energize learning when it is structured constructively.

Element VIh, playing academic games, contributes interest through challenge, feedback, low-stakes competition, and retrieval. Marzano’s folio emphasizes academic games of inconsequential competition, such as “What Is the Question?,” “Name That Category,” “Talk a Mile a Minute,” “Classroom Feud,” and “Which One Doesn’t Belong?” (Marzano, 2021c). The phrase inconsequential competition matters. The game should raise interest without making the outcome feel threatening or overly important. The focus remains on learning, not winning.

Together, these three elements remind us that interest is not the opposite of rigor. Interest is often what allows learners to stay with cognitively demanding work long enough to benefit from it.

How: Build Interest Through Surprise, Tension, and Play

When learners lose interest, teachers do not always need to redesign the lesson. Often, they need to add a well-timed point of intrigue. Elements VIf, VIg, and VIh provide three practical ways to do that.

The first is surprise. Presenting unusual information works because it interrupts the expected pattern of instruction. A science teacher might begin a lesson on ecosystems with an unusual case of an invasive species that changed an entire habitat. A history teacher might introduce a lesser-known detail about a historical figure that complicates students’ assumptions. A mathematics teacher might present a surprising real-world problem that could not be solved efficiently without the concept about to be introduced.

The point is not trivia. The unusual information must connect back to the learning goal. If it is merely interesting but unrelated, it may capture attention briefly but fail to deepen understanding. If it is both surprising and connected, it becomes a hook into the content. The strongest unusual information causes learners to ask, “Why did that happen?” “How is that possible?” or “What does that have to do with what we are learning?”

The second is tension. Friendly controversy works because students often become more interested when there is a meaningful question with more than one defensible answer. The teacher might ask students to vote, defend a claim, consider expert opinions, take an opposite point of view, or participate in a structured debate, seminar, town hall, or legal model (Marzano, 2021b). These structures invite learners to move beyond recall and into reasoning.

However, controversy must remain friendly. Marzano’s folio is clear that controversy should be mild because, when it becomes too heated, students can become so emotional that the activity works against engagement (Marzano, 2021b). This distinction is essential. The teacher is not trying to provoke students. The teacher is trying to create a disciplined exchange of ideas. Students should listen, ask questions, provide evidence, critique ideas rather than people, and maintain a respectful tone. In this way, friendly controversy supports both engagement and the development of civic and academic discourse.

The third is play. Academic games work because they make retrieval, review, categorization, and explanation more active. A teacher might turn a review question into a quick team challenge, ask students to identify the category that links a set of terms, or have students explain which item does not belong and why. These games can be especially useful when students already have some foundational knowledge but need repeated opportunities to retrieve, organize, and apply it.

Research on gamification and learning suggests that game-like elements can support motivation, engagement, interest, and learning outcomes, though effects vary depending on how well the game elements are aligned to learning purposes (Li et al., 2023). This is an important caution. Academic games should not replace instruction, and they should not reduce learning to points and speed. The best academic games make thinking visible. They help students retrieve important content, explain reasoning, recognize patterns, and connect ideas.

Self-determination theory also provides a helpful lens. Ryan and Deci (2000) argue that motivation is strengthened when environments support autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These three elements can support those needs when used well. Unusual information can invite curiosity and personal questioning. Friendly controversy can support relatedness through structured dialogue and perspective-taking. Academic games can build competence by allowing students to rehearse content in a low-risk format.

What: What It Looks Like When Interest Is Returning

When these strategies are working, the classroom does not simply become more entertaining. It becomes more intellectually alive.

When unusual information is working, students lean in, ask questions, and begin making connections. They want to know more. They can explain how the unusual information made the content more interesting or helped them understand the topic in a new way. The teacher knows the strategy is working not because students laughed or reacted, but because their curiosity led them back into the content.

When friendly controversy is working, students participate with purpose. They defend claims with evidence, listen to opposing views, and refine their thinking. They may disagree, but the disagreement remains focused on ideas. Students can explain how the controversy helped them better understand the content. In a competency-based classroom, this is especially valuable because it gives students another way to demonstrate growth in reasoning, evidence use, communication, and conceptual understanding.

When academic games are working, students are not merely playing. They are retrieving, explaining, revising, categorizing, comparing, and applying content. They can describe the content the game focused on and explain how the game strengthened their understanding. The teacher can see that the game is not a break from learning; it is another form of learning.

The common thread across all three elements is that students become more interested in the content itself. That distinction matters. The goal is not for students to say, “That activity was fun.” The goal is for students to say, “That helped me understand,” “That made me curious,” or “That made me think about the content differently.” Cognitive engagement is the key!

Bringing the Three Elements Together

Elements VIf, VIg, and VIh are best understood as a system for restoring interest. Unusual information sparks curiosity. Friendly controversy creates intellectual tension. Academic games add challenge, retrieval, and playful practice. Each element gives learners a reason to re-enter the work.

In a competency-based classroom, these strategies are especially important because students may be working on different measurement topics, at different levels of a proficiency scale, or with different forms of support. A teacher cannot assume that one activity will interest every learner in the same way. This is why the Marzano model emphasizes monitoring for desired effects. At the applying level, the teacher not only uses the strategy but also ensures that the majority of students experience the intended effect. Interest is not just planned. It is monitored.

When learners become unengaged because they lack interest, the teacher’s question is not simply, “How can I make this more fun?” The stronger question is, “What would make this content more intriguing, more debatable, or more worth thinking about?”

Sometimes the answer is a surprising fact. Sometimes it is a well-structured disagreement. Sometimes it is a quick academic game. In each case, the teacher is not adding entertainment to instruction. The teacher is creating an entry point for curiosity, reasoning, and renewed engagement.

To continue building your understanding of Design Area VI and the full Marzano Academies instructional model, become a member of the Learning Lab. For only $10 per month, Members can access Dr. Marzano’s research folios, professional learning resources, and practical tools designed to help teachers make competency-based practices work in real classrooms. The Learning Hub also includes Badging Experiences that allow teachers to identify a meaningful professional growth goal, strengthen their classroom routines, and document their growing expertise. Teachers should own their professional learning, and the Learning Hub is built to support that work. You can also sign up for Virtual Office Hours or engage in a CBE Coaching Series with Marzano Academies Faculty to deepen your team’s approach to a personalized, competency-based classroom. Please reach out with any questions.

References

Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111–127. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_4

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). Energizing learning: The instructional power of conflict. Educational Researcher, 38(1), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X08330540

Li, M., Ma, S., & Shi, Y. (2023). Examining the effectiveness of gamification as a tool promoting teaching and learning in educational settings: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1253549. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1253549

Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75–98. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.1.75

Marzano Academies. (2018). Marzano Academies implementation manual. Marzano Academies.

Marzano, R. J. (2021a). Element VIf: Presenting unusual information in a competency-based classroom. Marzano Academies.

Marzano, R. J. (2021b). Element VIg: Using friendly controversy in a competency-based classroom. Marzano Academies.

Marzano, R. J. (2021c). Element VIh: Playing academic games in a competency-based classroom. Marzano Academies.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68