Teacher Enthusiasm Research
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Contents |
Introduction
While reflecting on the teachers from my past that I would classify as outstanding, I recognize that most, if not all of them exhibited a great deal of enthusiasm. Baur (2002) interviewed 130 college chemistry students after completing their first general chemistry class and asked them to describe their high school chemistry teacher and course. Data from the surveys was grouped into categories with five different "types" of high school chemistry courses emerging. The category with the most positive response from students included descriptions of an "enthusiastic teacher." Most people agree that one of the qualities of an effective teacher is enthusiasm.
Not only does teacher enthusiasm help make a course more enjoyable and entertaining for students and the teacher, it has also been shown by Coats & Smidchens (1966) to help the learner retain larger amounts of information than when students are taught by a static speaker. Although there is debate as to what types of activities help students to learn most effectively, lecture is widely used and methods for increasing volume of information retained has been studied. Two different lecturers spoke to four groups each over the same content. Two of their speeches were given in an enthusiastic manner by using eye contact, changing up their postures, being animated, and being a powerful speaker. The other two speeches were given statically, by reading their message from a script, making no eye contact, but still speaking clearly and loudly. What Coats & Smidchens (1966) found was that scores on recall tests given after the lecture with an enthusiastic speaker were higher than those scores from students who attended a lecture with a static speaker. This information suggests that students are able to remember more of a lecture when it is presented by a dynamic speaker.
In addition to increasing volume of information retained, a teacher can also increase student on-task behavior rates by being enthusiastic (Bettencourt, Gillet, Gall, & Hull, 1983). Two experiments were conducted in which pre-service teachers new to a teacher education program were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was given enthusiasm training and the control group was not. All of the pre-service teachers were asked to teach an elementary school class for an extended period of time. They were given outlines of the major topics to cover, objectives, and inquiry-based materials that they could use if they chose to, but they had the option of teaching in any way that they wished. The teachers and students were videotaped and the analysis of those tapes revealed that students were engaged in on-task behaviors more often in the classroom with teachers who were trained in enthusiasm techniques than the classroom with teachers who were not trained. The on-task behavior increased not only during lecture times, but also during seatwork. The authors attributed this to the fact that enthusiasm is nonverbal and could still be sensed during seatwork (Bettencourt et. al, 1983).
A study conducted by Murphy & Walls (1994) focused in on certain visible signs of enthusiasm and how often they occurred in lectures given by outstanding university professors to determine if there are characteristics that can be taught to pre-service teachers to make them more enthusiastic and thus more effective. In this study, four "outstanding" university professors were videotaped on two separate occasions during a lecture session. Their body language was analyzed for the number of times that they exhibited the following behaviors:
(a) eye contact; (b) facial expression; (c) vocalization; (d) gesture; (e) movement.
If the behavior was observed at any time during a two-second interval, then it was given a check mark. The numbers and combinations of the above behaviors was tallied up and ranked. The most dominant behaviors, ranked in order of greatest occurrence, that were observed in the videotapes of the four professors were
1) vocalization, 2) eye contact, 3) gesture, 4) movement, and 5) facial expression.
The study also found combinations of two or more behaviors that often occurred simultaneously, including eye contact-vocalization, vocalization-gesture, and eye contact-gesture. The most common sequences of behaviors that occurred in a particular order were eye contact & facial expression preceding vocalization and eye contact & facial expression preceding a gesture.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to
- examine the levels of enthusiasm of a novice teacher
- compare enthusiasm of a novice teacher to four outstanding teachers.
Method
One novice teacher was videotaped on two separate occasions while teaching two similar lessons in a university general chemistry course as a graduate teaching assistant. During the videotaped sessions, the novice had received no prior training on nonverbal communication and had very little previous knowledge about the importance of projecting enthusiasm while teaching.
The videotapes were reviewed multiple times by the novice teacher to collect data on the number of two-second intervals in which that eye contact, facial expression, vocalization, gesture, and movement was exhibited throughout thirty different 10-second intervals.
A check mark was recorded in Table 1 (below) during each observed instance of the above listed enthusiasm behaviors when the teacher exhibited the following:
- "Eye contact" - an occurrence of looking into the eyes of any student in the class.
- "Facial expression" - a change from the relaxed state of the face, including raising eyebrows and smiling.
- "Vocalization" - a noise coming from the vocal chords of the teacher.
- "Gesture" - a movement of a body part including arms, hands, head tilt, fingers.
- "Movement" - walking at least two steps in the same direction from one location to another.
A continuous clock feature was used to record the exact time onto the videotape to help the reviewer to view specific two-second intervals. The first 10 seconds of the first 15 minutes of each video tape were analyzed in ten two-second snapshots. A data table was used to record each 10-second snapshot for each minute, giving a total of 30 data tables and 150 two-second intervals. A check mark was recorded in a data table, see Table 1 below, if any of the above gestures occurred during any of the two second intervals for the duration of the video observations.
| Two-Second Intervals | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2s | 4s | 6s | 8s | 10s | |
| Eye Contact | |||||
| Facial Expression | |||||
| Vocalization | |||||
| Gesture | |||||
| Movement | |||||
Table 1. Data table used to tabulate instances of enthusiasm. Table adapted from Murphy and Walls (1994).
Data Analysis Procedure
The total number of instances of eye contact, facial expression, vocalization, gesture, and movement that occurred in each of the 10-second intervals was summed and converted into a percentage. The percentage was calculated by taking the total number of check marks for each of the above listed criteria and dividing it by the total number of two-second intervals for this study (which was 150). The resulting percentages were compared to percentages obtained by the analysis of four "expert" college professors by Murphy and Walls (1994).
Results
Out of the 150 two-second videotaped intervals analyzed, there were 114 instances of vocalization, 90 instances of eye contact, 67 gestures, 34 periods of movement, and 8 facial expressions.
This equated to be:
- 76% vocalization
- 60% eye contact
- 45% gesture
- 23% movement
- 5% facial expression
Discussion and Implications
The results of the Murphy (1994) study are compared to the results obtained from this study in Table 2 below:
| Percentage of Two-Second Intervals Where Criterion Was Exhibited | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice Teacher | "Outstanding" Professor | ||||
| Vocalization | 76 | 90.9 | |||
| Eye Contact | 60 | 76.5 | |||
| Gesture | 45 | 66.5 | |||
| Movement | 23 | 55.8 | |||
| Facial Expression | 5 | 15.0 | |||
Table 2: Results of the Murphy (1994) study compared to the results videotaped enthusiasm analysis of a novice teacher.
Both the group of "outstanding" teachers and the novice teacher had the same ranking of most common criteria representing enthusiasm, which were in the order as follows: (1) vocalization, (2) eye contact, (3) gesture, (4) movement, and (5) facial expression. Vocalization and eye contact are the most prominent of the five criteria simply because when lecturing, it is necessary to have continual speaking and it is relatively simple to look out into the crowd. However, gesturing, moving, and making facial expressions require more effort on the part of the speaker. The novice teacher found it difficult to concentrate on the course material while remembering to smile and move about the room.
The "outstanding" teachers scored approximately on average 15% higher in each of the categories than the novice teacher. It is expected that as a teacher gains experience, there is a sense of confidence that grows within. As one becomes more confident in his or her presence as a teacher, it is easier to give students eye contact, to move about the room, to smile, to gesture, and to speak with authority. Because of this, it is not surprising that the novice teacher exhibited fewer behaviors of enthusiasm than the master teachers.
The "movement" behavior had the largest difference in percentage between the novice and the "outstanding" teachers. This may be due to nervousness on the part of the novice teacher. It is more common for a nervous person to stay put in front of the classroom rather than circulate about the room which often equates to closer contact with students. Although experiencing uneasiness about moving around the room can cause a novice teacher to stay in one spot, this behavior, or lack of, can be perceived by students as "boring."
The novice teacher only exhibited facial expressions during 5% of the 2-second intervals that were videotaped. In viewing the tapes, this behavior was markedly absent. The absence of facial expression set a mood of intimidation in the classroom that was not perceived by the teacher during the lesson, but was easily visible on the tapes. The most common facial expression exhibited by the novice was a smile, which seemed to relax students and cause quiet talking and sometimes laughter in the classroom. Again, a lack of facial expression may be due to nervousness and a lower level of self-confidence.
The difference in vocalization and eye contact scores may be attributed to differences in the types of lessons presented between the novice teacher's and the "outstanding" teacher's sessions. The novice teacher was working out practice problems on the chalkboard and offered time for the students to ask questions during which she did not speak. While writing on the chalkboard, she did not make eye contact with students. She also left approximately 10 seconds after asking questions to give students time to formulate their responses, which resulted in a lower score for vocalization. If the "outstanding" teachers were lecturing, then it would make sense that more of their time was spent vocalizing and giving eye contact than the novice teacher. However, the novice teacher also had a few instances where she referred to the textbook because of a lack of mastery of the content in the lesson, which also led to decreases in vocalization and eye contact scores.
Finally, the novice teacher scored much lower in gestures than the "outstanding" teachers. This may be attributed to nervousness and low self-confidence. Often, the novice teacher had her hands in her pockets or bent at 90 degree angles and folded together. She did make quite a few gestures, which was the third most often occurring characteristic, but not as much as a veteran teacher would.
I believe that the enthusiasm of a teacher sets the mood of the classroom and makes an impact on the students' perceptions of the teacher. I found it interesting to see how the percentages of enthusiasm characteristics compared between novice and experienced teachers and was not surprised to find lower scores for enthusiasm for the novice teacher. However, I do not believe that by adding more instances of gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions would make a large difference in the perception of enthusiasm by the students of the teachers, because I believe that enthusiasm comes from within. I believe that the enthusiasm score of the novice teacher will improve as she gains experience in the classroom and self-confidence.
References
Bauer, C. F. (2002). What students think: College students describe their high school chemistry class. The Science Teacher, 69, 52-55.
Bettencourt, E. M., Gillett, M. H., Gall, M. D., & Hull, R. E. (1983). Effects of teacher enthusiasm training on student on-task behavior and achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 20, 435-450.
Coats, W., & Smidchens, W. (1966). Audience recall as a function of speaker dynamism. Journal of Educational Psychology, 57, 189-191.
Collins, M. L. (1978). Effects of enthusiasm training on preservice elementary teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 29, 53-57.
Murphy, C. A. & Walls, R. T. (1994). Concurrent and sequential occurrences of teacher enthusiasm behaviors. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. [ERIC] AN: ED 375 128.
Websites of Interest
- Department of Health Promotion, Leisure and Human Performance Elon College, North Carolina. Website lists and explains the various characteristics of enthusiastic teaching. It also discusses the role of feedback in the classroom.
- Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Western Australia. This site discusses three reasons why teacher enthusiasm is a powerful tool in the classroom and gives references to research pertaining to the topic.
- The Journal of Experimental Education accessed through HighBeam Research. The website contains the reference to and abstract for a paper that discusses the effects of teacher enthusiasm on student intrinsic motivation.
