Learning for later teaching: An exploration of mediational links between teaching expectancy and learning results

It was investigated to what extent the expectancy of a teaching demand influences learning results. In addition, possible mediator effects were explored. Thirty-six subjects (students of education) learned from worked-out examples in the domain of probability calculus under two different conditions: The experimental group expected to be required to explain similar worked-out examples to a third person, whereas the control group merely anticipated to be tested on similar problems. The results showed that the teaching expectancy decreased the superficiality of studying the worked-out examples, lowered intrinsic motivation, and increased, to some extent, anxiety during learning. The learning results were negatively influenced by anxiety during learning and were positively associated with the time allocated to construct a sound problem representation. However, no assumed mediator effect proved to be of real significance. In addition, the learning gains were not affected by the teaching expectancy.