Classroom learning and achievement: How the complexity of classroom interaction impacts students' learning

Background: Complexity models have provided a suitable framework

in various domains to assess students’ educational achievement.

Complexity is often used as the analytical focus when regarding learning

outcomes, i.e. when analyzing written tests or problem-centered

interviews. Numerous studies reveal negative correlations between

the complexity of a task and the probability of a student solving it.

Purpose: Thus far, few detailed investigations explore the importance

of complexity in actual classroom lessons. Moreover, the few efforts

made so far revealed inconsistencies. Hence, the present study sheds

light on the influence the complexity of students’ and teachers’ class

contributions have on students’ learning outcomes.

Sample: Videos of 10 German 8th grade physics courses covering

three consecutive lessons on two topics each (electricity, mechanics)

have been analyzed. The sample includes 10 teachers and 290

students.

Design and methods: Students’ and teachers’ verbal contributions

were coded manual-based according to the level of complexity.

Additionally, pre-post testing of knowledge in electricity and

mechanics was applied to assess the students’ learning gain. ANOVA

analysis was used to characterize the influence of the complexity on

the learning gain.

Results: Results indicate that the mean level of complexity in

classroom contributions explains a large portion of variance in posttest

results on class level. Despite this overarching trend, taking

classroom activities into account as well reveals even more finegrained

patterns, leading to more specific relations between the

complexity in the classroom and students’ achievement.

Conclusions: In conclusion, we argue for more reflected teaching

approaches intended to gradually increase class complexity to foster

students’ level of competency.