Effects of Teacher Enthusiasm Training on Student On-task Behavior and Achievement

Abstract

Two experiments were done to assess the effects of enthusiasm training for teachers on students' academic performance. Teachers were randomly assigned to training and no-training conditions in each study. Trained teachers became significantly more enthusiastic than untrained teachers (both experiments). After the training period in Experiment 1, all teachers taught the same curriculum unit to their students. Contrary to previous research findings, students of trained teachers did not achieve more than other students. However, the no-training group used their natural teaching style, whereas in previous studies control group teachers displayed artificially depressed levels of enthusiasm. In Experiment 2 students of trained teachers were observed to be more often on-task. Possible explanations of this result were found in research on nonverbal communication and on attention.

Mediating effects of teacher enthusiasm and peer enthusiasm on students’ interest in the college classroom

“…Furthermore, even in studies of teacher enthusiasm, in general, teacher enthusiasm has been investigated as a predictor of students' performance (Bettencourt, Gillett, Gall, & Hull, 1983;Brigham, Scruggs, & Mastropieri, 1992;McKinney, Robertson, Gilmore, Ford, & Larkins, 1984) and motivation (Patrick, Hisley, & Kempler, 2000). However, antecedents to understanding students' perceptions of teacher enthusiasm have not been explored.…”

“…Despite its recognized importance, even until now, there has not been a single widely accepted definition of teacher enthusiasm (Kunter et al, 2008). Usually, definitions have been used global concepts such as dynamism and stimulus variation (Bettencourt et al, 1983).…”

“…Also, Bettencourt et al (1983) suggested that across curriculum content, students, and grade levels, enthusiasm might be an important generalizable characteristic of effective training.…”

“…teacher enthusiasm focusing on specific teacher behaviors in the classroom, researchers have investigated the effects of teacher enthusiasm on students' achievement in particular school subjects, and educators have trained pre service teachers to be more enthusiastic in their teaching (Bettencourt et al, 1983).…”

Engaging Science: Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Notions of Engaging Science Lessons

“…or if a subset can be sufficient for producing a high level of engagement in science (say, interest and enthusiasm). The effect of teacher enthusiasm on engagement (as time on task) can be calculated from data in Bettencourt et al (1983). Its effect size for teacher-led discussion was 0.98 which could be described as large (Cohen, 1988;0.2 or 0.3 are commonly seen a small, 0.5 as medium, and 0.8 or more as large effect sizes, see also Borenstein, Hedges and Rothstein, 2009).…”