Speak Earnestly,Listen Contemptuously?The Influence Of Teacher Enthusiasm On High School Students’Classroom Participation:The Mediating Role Of Achievement Motivation

In recent years,along with the increasing attention to "building a new type of classroom in general high schools and improving teaching effectiveness",students’ classroom participation,which is an important indicator of teaching effectiveness,has also become a topic of attention in educational psychology.However,most of the studies on classroom participation in China have focused on the investigation of the frequency of participation in specific subjects,or the examination of the influence of a single factor on classroom participation,but there is a lack of research on the effects and mechanisms of multiple factors on classroom participation.Teacher enthusiasm refers to a positive affective experience and behavioral characteristics displayed by teachers in the process of teaching and educating,and is a specific expressive power of teachers to actively deliver educational content.Teacher enthusiasm has been shown to be related to factors such as student achievement,motivation,and therefore may influence student engagement in the classroom.There are no empirical studies that have examined the influence of teacher enthusiasm on student classroom engagement.Accordingly,this study asks the following questions:(1)what is the classroom engagement of high school students in each subject;(2)whether and how teacher enthusiasm affects classroom engagement in each subject.To explore the above questions,this study used a scale survey method to first analyze the current status of high school students’ classroom participation in each subject;secondly,to examine the differences in students’ classroom participation in each subject by grade and gender;and finally,to explore the influence of teacher enthusiasm on classroom participation and to analyze the mediating role of achievement motivation.The study selected 707 high school students from Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as the research subjects,and conducted a survey on classroom participation,teacher enthusiasm,and achievement goal orientation in 7 subjects such as Chinese and mathematics.The results showed that:(1)classroom participation in each subject was ranked in the order of major subject,physical education(outdoor)subject,and minor subject,and there were grade differences in classroom participation in both minor and major subjects,and the highest levels of classroom participation in major and minor subjects were in senior year and sophomore year,respectively;(2)there was a significant correlation between teacher enthusiasm and classroom participation in each subject,and teacher enthusiasm had a significant positive predictive effect on classroom participation;(3)The mediating effect of teacher enthusiasm on high school students’ classroom participation varied by discipline.Specifically,teacher enthusiasm had a significant indirect effect on classroom participation through performance-avoidance goal orientations in achievement motivation in the primary classroom,while teacher enthusiasm had a significant indirect effect on classroom participation through mastery goal orientations in achievement motivation in the secondary and physical education(outdoor)classrooms.The results of this study suggest that teacher enthusiasm is a key factor in promoting students’ classroom engagement and that teacher enthusiasm can influence classroom engagement across subjects through high school students’ achievement motivation.The results provide specific insights for enhancing classroom participation of high school students in China and effectively enhancing teachers’ motivation to teach and educate:(1)effectively promoting teacher enthusiasm and student achievement motivation;(2)advocating equal classroom participation between men and women;(3)paying attention to the differences in classroom participation across grades and subjects.