Antecedents and Effects of Teacher Expressiveness

• In Event: Antecedents and Correlates of Teachers’ Relational Work

Abstract

Teacher expressiveness has been identified as important to students’ degree of intrinsic motivation and is considered a key condition for effective classroom teaching. Frenzel et al. (2009) have emphasized the importance of teachers expressing their enthusiasm, because student-perceived teachers’ expressed enthusiasm mediates the link between teacher and student enjoyment. Given the importance of teachers to express their enthusiasm, which teacher variables are related to student-perceived teacher expressiveness?

We hypothesized that teachers’ experienced enthusiasm as well as extraversion should positively relate to student-perceived teacher expressiveness. Furthermore, we hypothesized that a more expressive teaching style should positively relate to students’ achievement. The more a teacher demonstrates enthusiasm, the more this expressiveness should be perceived by their students, and positively relate to their grades.

Methods: By applying a longitudinal design, we investigated teachers’ extraversion (Big 5) and experienced enthusiasm at the beginning of the school year, student-perceived teacher expressiveness one month later, and student grades at the end of the school term. Data were collected from 69 teachers (77.9% female) of average 40.42 years of age (SD=11.65) who had been teaching for a mean of 3.52 years (SD=2.56). Each teacher participated with one class they were teaching in the present term for at least three hours per week in one of the core subjects. By applying this approach, we obtained a 1:1 correspondence between teachers and classrooms from 69 classes. These classes included 1,643 students (57.1% girls) with an average age of 14.07 years (SD=1.54). 43 of the total students (2.6%) were in grade 5; 280 (17.0%) in grade 6; 466 (28.4%) in grade 7; 244 (14.9%) in grade 8; 493 (30.0%) in grade 9; and 117 (7.1%) in grade 10. Classes came from ten secondary schools in Bavaria, Germany, with average student:teacher ratio of 24:1. Teachers’ experienced enthusiasm, student-perceived teacher expressiveness, and students’ grades were measured in one of the students’ core school subjects. Questionnaires for the core school subjects German/ primary foreign language (mostly English)/ mathematics/ science, were filled out by 47.8%/32.9%/19.3% of the students, respectively.

Results: Multilevel structural equation models (SEM) revealed that teachers’ experienced enthusiasm and extraversion at Time 1 were positively linked to student-perceived teacher expressiveness at Time 2 (β=.33*/.37**). Furthermore, the results supported our expectation that student-perceived teacher expressiveness in a given subject at Time 2 was positively linked to their achievement (β=.31*) in it. Overall, model fit was acceptable for the multilevel SEM with χ²(df=57, N=1,643)=105.661, CFI=.94, TLI=.92, RMSEA=.02, SRMRbetween=.11/SRMR within=.05).

Discussion: Results show that teachers’ extraversion and enthusiasm predict their expressiveness perceived by students, which in turn, links to students’ subsequent achievement. These findings have two main implications. First, teacher extraversion and experienced enthusiasm are two important antecedents of student-perceived teacher expressiveness. Second, in line with prior literature concerning positive effects of teacher expressiveness, our findings emphasize the positive relation between student-perceived teacher expressiveness and their achievement. Taken together, findings reveal personality and dispositional antecedents to teacher expressiveness, and accentuate the importance of this relational work to students’ achievements.

Authors

• Betty Becker-Kurz, Betty Becker-Kurz Leopoldstraße 14

• Helen M.G. Watt, Monash University

• Anne C. Frenzel, University of Munich (LMU)

• Reinhard Pekrun, University of Essex