Displayed enthusiasm attracts attention and improves recall

Abstract

Background. Instructor enthusiasm has been shown to enhance a range of positive student outcomes including recall, but the underlying mechanisms for the favourable effects of teacher enthusiasm are still largely unknown.Aims. We hypothesized that attention paid to the instructor is one mechanism and that the positive effects of enthusiasm will disappear when attention is captured by another task.Samples. In a series of three studies, we involved fourth and fifth graders in listening to texts read aloud with high or low levels of displayed enthusiasm. Methods.In Study 1, we obtained self-reported and observed behavioural indicators of attention while students were read texts with high versus low enthusiasm. In Study 2, we additionally manipulated attention by comparing a group who performed a concurrent attentional task while listening to the texts read with high or low enthusiasm to a group who only listened to the texts. In Study 3, we compared the attention-catching concurrent task used in Study 2 to a non-attention-catching dual task.Results and Conclusions. Our results confirm that displayed enthusiasm captures attention and that attention partially explains the positive effect of displayed enthusiasm on recall.In psychological literature, enthusiasm has been defined either as the result of a pleasant affective state stemming from experiences of enjoyment and interest (e.g., Burić & Moè, 2020;Frenzel, Goetz, Lüdtke, Pekrun, & Sutton, 2009), or as an effective instructional strategy acted out to support student achievement and interest (see Keller, Hoy, Goetz, &Frenzel, 2016 and Rosenshine, 1970 for reviews). Whatever its origin, enthusiasm gives rise to a pattern of expressive behaviours, suggesting energy, interest, and involvement. We refer to this as 'displayed enthusiasm', which is easily perceptible to others (Keller, Becker, Frenzel, & Taxer, 2018).Enthusiasm has been shown to positively influence a range of student outcomes:

Effects of Teacher Enthusiasm and Type of Text on the Motivation and Achievement of Schoolchildren

“…There is, however, no clear theoretical framework to explain the direct influence of enthusiasm on performance. At the empirical level, the indirect influence of enthusiasm on achievement has been analyzed through variables such as the increase in student attention ( Moè et al, 2021 ). An alternative that has been less explored in research is the analysis of contextual variables that might explain some conditions under which enthusiasm affects achievement.…”

The Influence of Gratitude on the Meaning of Life: The Mediating Effect of Family Function and Peer Relationship

“…Among them, depression, anxiety, and even extreme behaviors such as self-injury and suicide of teenagers have become serious social problems (Gao et al, 2001;Li, 2013;Xu et al, 2021). At present, studies on the mental health of college students at home and abroad gradually focus on protective factors, such as enthusiasm (Kunter et al, 2011;Keller et al, 2016;Moè, 2016;Moè et al, 2020), enjoyment (Raccanello et al, 2019), resilience (Merrill et al, 2014;Tong, 2020), etc. Studies showed that improving protective factors can effectively prevent mental health problems (Henry et al, 2012) and help the healthy growth of youth (Magson et al, 2021).…”

Shaping student confidence and their perception of learning in undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry courses

“…Such a flipped model coupled with the incorporation of regular small group work was used in all courses examined in this study, which may thus explain why students perceived the class environment to have a relatively high influence on their learning. It would be remiss not to also mention the importance of instructor attitude and enthusiasm in the class environment, which captures attention thus improving recall and strongly correlates with student intrinsic motivation and vitality (Alsharif & Qi, 2014;Moè, Frenzel, Au, & Taxer, 2021). With respect to the influence of instructor feedback on student perceptions of learning, one can appreciate how the brain uses feedback to learn by considering some relevant analogies; artificial neural networks using learning algorithms rely on feedback to recognize patterns (Hopfield, 1987;Littman, 2015;Salam & Bai, 1991), and iterative feedback mechanisms are used in machine and biological learning alike (Jones et al, 2009;Vates & Nottebohm, 1995).…”