A longitudinal study of student hand raising: Stability and reciprocal dynamics with cognitive elaboration and academic self-concept.

Abstract

Hand raising is a key student behavior in everyday teacher-student interactions. Using a longitudinal research design, we explored the stability of hand raising and its directional relations with student learner characteristics over time. We observed students' hand-raising behavior using video-recordings of 376 German high school students taken in multiple lessons during one school year. Results show that student hand raising seems to be a stable student behavior; nearly half of the variance observed is attributable to individual students, while less is attributable to lessons and classroom teachers. A latent cross-lagged panel analysis revealed reciprocal dynamics between hand-raising, cognitive, and motivational learner characteristics. Specifically, hand raising functioned as both an antecedent and an outcome of students' cognitive elaboration, while frequent hand raising at the beginning of the school year positively predicted changes in students' academic self-concept. Therefore, hand raising seems to be associated with opportunities that stimulate positive changes in students' cognitive and competence-related learning experiences. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis study investigates student hand raising based on behavioral data from video-recordings of German high school classrooms during teacher-centered, whole-class discourse. Results contribute to a better understanding of how student hand raising is related to students' cognitive and competence-related learning experiences. Additionally, results highlight that students' hand-raising behavior is relatively stable throughout multiple lessons during the school year. Implications for teachers of how to support hand raising are discussed.