Research Project | Teacher’s Non-Verbal Behaviour and Student Motivation

Rachel Cartin is a masters student studying Psychology of Education at the University of Manchester. She is currently undertaking research investigating teacher non-verbal behaviour in the classroom and how this can affect a student’s academic motivation.

Motivation is essential to learning, and communication is a key means through which we can elicit motivation. Rogers et al., (1999) describe educational motivation as a desire, need or internal feeling to learn something. The issue often lies within the student not wanting to learn what the teacher is aiming to teach them, rather than not wanting to learn at all. There are many different influences that will affect how and why a child is motivated to learn, this can include their instructor’s behaviour, the classroom, their peers, as well as their own temperament and personality.

There has been an extensive range of communication research demonstrating that an increase in teacher immediacy (verbal and non-verbal) positively impacts upon a student’s motivation (Zheng, 2021). Teacher non-verbal immediacy encompasses behaviours such as smiling, eye contact and use of gestures, and is associated with raising motivation, engagement and enthusiasm amongst students. Successful communication within the class relies on the accurate sending and receiving of messages between the teacher and the students. Therefore, the learning process is a communication event between the teacher and the student. Liu (2021) emphasises the importance of researching teacher immediacy and student motivation for effective teaching and learning, so there is a need for more empirical research to investigate this relationship. Recent research from Hussian at al., (2021) found that increased perceptions of teacher immediacy positively correlate with student outcomes such as increased participation in class, course satisfaction and motivation. Moreover, some studies have found that teacher immediacy behaviours can decrease anxiety, stress and negative reactions in students (Liu, 2021).

The purpose of this study will be to investigate the relationship between teacher non-verbal immediacy behaviours and student academic motivation, allowing educational professionals to appreciate and understand the significance of how a teacher’s non-verbal behaviour within the classroom can positively impact upon a child’s motivation to learn and participate in class.

Thank you for your time and for reading this post! If you are a qualified teacher and you would like to consider participating in this research, more information can be found here.

Here is the online teacher survey link 

Here is the online student survey link 

The parent consent and information sheet 

If you are interested in taking part or would like to find out more, please contact me via email for more information:

Rachel Cartin

[email protected]

References:

Hussain, T., Azeem, A., & Abid, N. (2021). Examining the Correlation between University Students’ Perceived Teacher Immediacy and their Motivation. Psychology And Education Journal, 58(1), 5809-5820. https://doi.org/10.17762/pae.v58i1.1990

Liu, W. (2021). Does Teacher Immediacy Affect Students? A Systematic Review of the Association Between Teacher Verbal and Non-verbal Immediacy and Student Motivation. Frontiers In Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.713978

Rogers, S., Ludington, J., & Graham, S. (1999) Clarifying the relationship between teacher non-verbal immediacy and student cognitive learning: Affective learning as the central causal mediator. Communication Education, 45, 293-305.

Zheng J. (2021). A Functional Review of Research on Clarity, Immediacy, and Credibility of Teachers and Their Impacts on Motivation and Engagement of Students. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 712419. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712419