Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2024 Dec;23(4):ar45. doi: 10.1187/cbe.24-02-0092.
High levels of student anxiety are negatively related to degree persistence, academic achievement, and student perceptions of instructor support. Anxiety levels vary along many axes-among classes, within students in the same class, and over time-creating a dynamic emotional landscape in classrooms. In this study, we examined the relationship between student anxiety levels and perceptions of instructor support within three introductory biology classes at two timepoints during a semester. Data on student anxiety levels and perceptions of instructor support were supplemented by open-ended student explanations of instructor support characteristics. We found a significant negative correlation between student anxiety level and instructor support ratings at wk 4 for all three classes. By wk 14, this correlation persisted in classes 1 and 3 but not class 2, where support ratings no longer significantly varied with anxiety levels. Analyses of open responses revealed that lower-anxiety students in classes 1 and 3 were more positive about how the instructors answered questions and higher-anxiety students in class 2 were more positive about their instructor's pedagogical practices. We suggest that these instructor practices should be investigated as potential factors to equalize perceptions of instructor support by students with different anxiety levels in introductory biology.
学生的焦虑水平较高与学位持续时间、学业成绩和学生对教师支持的感知呈负相关。焦虑水平在许多方面存在差异——在不同的班级之间、在同一个班级的学生之间以及随着时间的推移——在课堂上创造了一个动态的情感景观。在这项研究中，我们在两个学期的两个时间点检查了三个入门生物学课程中学生的焦虑水平和对教师支持的感知之间的关系。学生焦虑水平和对教师支持的感知数据通过学生对教师支持特征的开放式解释得到补充。我们发现，在所有三个班级中，第 4 周学生的焦虑水平与教师支持评分呈显著负相关。到第 14 周，这种相关性在第 1 班和第 3 班仍然存在，但在第 2 班则不然，在第 2 班，支持评分不再与焦虑水平显著相关。对开放式回答的分析表明，第 1 班和第 3 班中焦虑水平较低的学生对教师回答问题的方式更为肯定，而第 2 班中焦虑水平较高的学生对教师的教学实践更为肯定。我们建议，应该研究这些教师的实践，作为在入门生物学中使具有不同焦虑水平的学生平等感知教师支持的潜在因素。
