Educational Studies

ISSN: 0305-5698 (Print) 1465-3400 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ceds20

Podcasts in higher education: teacher enthusiasm

increases students’ excitement, interest,
enjoyment, and learning motivation

Lars König

To cite this article: Lars König (2020): Podcasts in higher education: teacher enthusiasm
increases students’ excitement, interest, enjoyment, and learning motivation, Educational Studies,
DOI: 10.1080/03055698.2019.1706040

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2019.1706040

Published online: 07 Jan 2020.

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EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2019.1706040

Podcasts in higher education: teacher enthusiasm increases

students’ excitement, interest, enjoyment, and learning
motivation
Lars König
Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Teacher enthusiasm is linked to various positive outcomes. Received 14 January 2019
However, most teacher enthusiasm research is based on correla- Accepted 14 December 2019
tional data. Therefore, no causal inferences can be drawn. To over- KEYWORDS
come this limitation, a between-subject experimental design Teacher enthusiasm;
(N = 163) was used to analyse the effects of teacher enthusiasm podcast; instructional
on instructional quality. Two versions of an educational podcast quality; interest; learning
were developed: A neutral and an enthusiastic version. While the motivation
wording was kept identical between both versions, the speaker was
instructed to read the podcast script either in a neutral or in an
enthusiastic manner. The results show that listening to the enthu-
siastic version resulted in more positive instructional quality ratings:
Participants who listened to the enthusiastic version rated it as
more interesting and exciting; they enjoyed the listening process
more; had a higher motivation to learn more about the topic;
evaluated the podcast host as more trustworthy; and gave the
podcast a higher overall rating.

Introduction
Teacher enthusiasm may be defined as the occurrence of diverse behavioural expressions,
such as nonverbal (e.g. gestures) and verbal (e.g. tone of voice) behaviours (e.g. Keller
et al. 2016). Previous research has shown that teacher enthusiasm is linked to various
positive outcomes (for an exception, see König and Jucks 2019). For example, it is linked to
students’ enjoyment (Frenzel et al. 2009), interest (Keller et al. 2014), achievement (Kunter
et al. 2013), motivation and vitality (Patrick, Hisley, and Kempler 2000). However, most
teacher enthusiasm research is based on correlational data and therefore no causal
inferences can be drawn. Furthermore, most teacher enthusiasm research has been
conducted in the context of traditional learning environments like classrooms. Hence,
little is known about whether teacher enthusiasm also facilitates learning when it is used
to enhance modern learning formats (e.g. podcasts). To overcome these limitations,
a between-subject experimental design was used to analyse the effects of teacher
enthusiasm in the context of modern learning formats. More specifically, participants
listened to educational podcasts and rated them on various dimensions to answer the

CONTACT Lars König lars.koenig@uni-muenster.de Department of Psychology, University of Münster,

Fliednerstraße 21, Münster 48149, Germany
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 L. KÖNIG

following research question: Does teacher enthusiasm influence the instructional quality
of educational podcasts? In line with previous findings, it was hypothesised that teacher
enthusiasm would improve the instructional quality of educational podcasts.

Materials and methods

Sample
Participants were recruited via email and social networking sites. Before the experiment
started, participants gave consent to take part in the experiment. Only participants who
indicated at the end of the experiment that they answered the questions honestly were
included in data analyses. The final sample contained 163 (120 female, 43 male) German
university students (87 undergraduate students, 76 graduate students) with an average
age of 24 years (M = 24.03, SD = 3.92).

Material
Two versions of an educational podcast were developed: A neutral and an enthusiastic
version. While the wording was kept identical between both versions, the speaker was
instructed to read the podcast script either in a neutral or in an enthusiastic manner.
During the podcast, a scientific study (see Singh and Bronstad 2001) related to the field of
evolutionary psychology was discussed.

Procedure
First, participants gave informed consent and provided demographic information. They
were then randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions. After listening
to the podcast, participants answered the dependent measures and the manipulation
check question. At the end of the experiment, participants were debriefed.

Dependent measures and manipulation check

As measures of instructional quality, participants indicated their agreement with seven
statements about the podcast and the podcast host (see Table 1) on a scale ranging from
1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree). Furthermore, participants gave the podcast an
overall rating on a scale from 1 (very good) to 6 (unsatisfactory). To test whether the
experimental manipulation had worked, participants answered the question “How would
you describe to the tone of voice of the podcast host?” on a scale ranging from 1 (neutral)
to 7 (enthusiastic).

Results
The statistical software R (R Core Team 2017) and R Studio (RStudio Team 2016) were
used. For all analyses, one-sided Welch two sample t-test were conducted. Participants
rated the enthusiastic (M = 2.79, SD = 1.41) version of the podcast as more enthusiastic
than the neutral (M = 1.73, SD = 0.82) version [Manipulation Check: t(134.31) = −5.8886,
 EDUCATIONAL STUDIES 3

Table 1. Means and standard deviations of the dependent measures by experimental condition.
Podcast version
Neutral Enthusiastic
Dependent measures n = 79 n = 84
Enjoyment: 3.99 (1.83)** 4.62 (1.50)
“I enjoyed listening to the podcast.”
Learning Motivation: 3.75 (1.79)* 4.37 (1.60)
“I would like to learn more about the presented topic.”
Podcasts: 3.46 (1.68)*** 4.40 (1.48)
“I would like to listen to further podcasts of the podcast host.”
Credibility: 4.96 (1.45) 5.29 (1.42)
“The information presented in the podcast seemed credible.”
Trustworthiness: 4.48 (1.50)*** 5.21 (1.21)
“The host of the podcast seemed trustworthy.”
Interest: 4.43 (1.84)** 5.07 (1.48)
“The podcast was interesting.”
Excitement: 4.01 (1.79)* 4.61 (1.51)
“The podcast was exciting.”
Overall: 2.82 (1.02)** 2.38 (0.76)
“Overall, the podcast was [very good (1) – unsatisfactory (6)].”
Significant differences: *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001; The Overall scale ranged from 1 (very good) to 6 (unsatisfactory).
All other scales ranged from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).

p < .001]. Hence, the experimental manipulation worked as expected. The results show
that listening to the enthusiastic version of the podcast, in comparison to listening to the
neutral version of the podcast, resulted in more positive instructional quality ratings:
Participants who listened to the enthusiastic version rated it as more interesting [Interest:
t(149.76) = −2.4443, p = .008], and more exciting [Excitement: t(153.21) = −2.2854,
p = .012]. Furthermore, they enjoyed listening to the podcast more [Enjoyment: t
(150.90) = −2.4048, p = .009]; had a higher motivation to learn more about the topic
[Learning Motivation: t(156.31) = −2.3394, p = .010]; wanted to listen to further podcasts
of the podcast host [Podcasts: t(155.68) = −3.8185, p < .001]; evaluated the podcast host
as more trustworthy [Trustworthiness: t(150.05) = −3.4176, p < .001]; and gave the podcast
a more positive overall rating [Overall: t(145.20) = 3.0955, p = .001]. However, enthusiasm
did not affect the credibility of the provided information [Credibility: t(159.82) = −1.4371,
p = .076]. Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the dependent measures.

Discussion
The current study was designed to test the hypothesis that teacher enthusiasm improves
the instructional quality of educational podcasts. Overall, the results are in line with the
hypothesis: Participants who listened to the enthusiastic version of the podcast rated the
instructional quality as more positive. More specifically, participants who listened to the
enthusiastic version rated the podcast as more interesting and exciting. Furthermore, they
enjoyed listening to the podcast more; had a higher motivation to learn more about the
topic; wanted to listen to further podcasts of the podcast host; evaluated the podcast host
as more trustworthy; and gave the podcast a more positive overall rating. In contrast, the
perceived credibility of the provided information was not affected by teacher enthusiasm.
These findings demonstrate that an enthusiastic presentation of instructional contents
can make the learning process more enjoyable for learners, and motivate them to delve
deeper into the topic. Nevertheless, future research should replicate the current study in
4 L. KÖNIG

regards to the effect of teacher enthusiasm on measures of performance and to explore

the generalisability of the findings, particularly in regards to other cultural contexts where
enthusiasm might be seen as a less desirable trait.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding
This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [GRK 1712].

Notes on contributor
Lars König is a member of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). Currently, his research focuses
on science/health communication, persuasion in online environments, and the strategic design of
digital learning environments.

ORCID
Lars König http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1450-8449

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