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 I, 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.