Using sentiment analysis to examine the effect of teacher messages on student motivation to learn

Abstract

Teachers’ engaging messages, an indicator of their verbal behaviour, influence students’ outcomes. In this study we use sentiment analysis to examine students’ responses to open-ended questions about their teacher’s communication. We used the student sentiment to explore the mechanism underlying the effect of teachers’ engaging messages on students’ motivation to learn. We performed a multilevel SEM and a mediation analysis. Results showed that the higher the frequency of messages the teacher uses, the more positive the students’ sentiment towards the teacher’s communication. We also found that the students’ sentiment partially mediates the relation between teachers’ engaging messages and the students’ motivation to learn. These results reinforce the importance of teachers’ messages, as it influences students’ sentiments. Furthermore, this opens a new line for the use of sentiment analysis in the study of constructs of interest within the educational field.