Purpose: Adolescent interest in science declines during a critical period of identity formation. Although narrative theory, rhetoric, and science communication have independently examined textual factors associated with engagement, an integrated framework explaining how these factors interact in scientific nonfiction remains lacking. This study proposes a conceptual model of the narrative dimensions that shape adolescents' situational interest in scientific nonfiction.
Subject: The study focuses on scientific nonfiction texts for non-expert audiences, particularly adolescents aged 13-18, and examines how rhetorical, narrative, and audience-related dimensions contribute to the emergence of situational interest.
Method: A systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA framework and analyzed using thematic analysis. From 244 retrieved records, 45 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected for analysis. Extracted concepts were synthesized through iterative coding and expert validation, resulting in a model comprising 43 indicators organized into 13 components across three dimensions: rhetoric, narrativity, and the implied audience.
Findings: The analysis identified three interdependent dimensions of engaging scientific nonfiction. Rhetoric encompasses strategies that enhance comprehensibility and persuasion; narrativity refers to the organization of scientific concepts into meaningful narrative structures; and the implied audience reflects the alignment of texts with adolescents' prior knowledge, cognitive capacities, and sociocultural contexts. Situational interest emerges from the interaction among these dimensions rather than from any single dimension in isolation.
Results: The proposed model provides an interpretive framework for explaining how scientific nonfiction stimulates adolescents' situational interest and offers a conceptual basis for the analysis, design, and evaluation of engaging science communication texts. The model also establishes a foundation for future research on the relationship between narrative scientific nonfiction, scientific identity development, and sustained individual interest.