Predicting students' cognitive learning activity and intrinsic learning motivation: How powerful are teacher statements, student profiles, and gender?

Verbal teacher-student interactions and student characteristics are meaningful for student learning and motivation. In this study, we investigated how teacher questions and feedback in relation to individual student characteristics and gender predict cognitive learning activity and intrinsic learning motivation. The sample included N = 79 randomly selected high school physics classrooms in Germany and Switzerland. Individual student characteristics (cognitive abilities, pre-knowledge, self-concept, and interest) were assessed at the beginning of the school year to identify five student profiles. Four months later, a teaching unit was videotaped in the same classrooms. After the teaching unit was videotaped, a questionnaire on cognitive learning activity and intrinsic learning motivation was administered. Two-level hierarchical models showed that deep-reasoning teacher questions and feedback positively predicted both dependent variables and the student profiles revealed predictive power for both aspects. Girls reported less cognitive learning activity. Our results indicate that teaching skills should be fostered to enhance teachers in asking questions and providing feedback.