How does teacher-student interaction shape students’ verbal participation initiative? A multimodal analysis of 2 018 classroom video recordings

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Verbal participation constitutes a critical behavioral manifestation of student cognitive engagement and pedagogical reciprocity in classroom ecosystems. This study, based on 2 018 classroom video recordings (K-12), investigates how teacher-student interaction affects students’ verbal participation initiative across eight factors. Results reveal three key findings: (1) among all teacher verbal behaviors, incorporating student ideas most strongly promotes students’ verbal participation initiative, followed by questioning; (2) elementary students respond strongly to positive responses, whereas secondary students engage more with high frequency of questioning and incorporation of ideas; (3) in humanities classrooms, positive responses encourage personal expression, whereas in science classrooms, teachers’ behaviors such as incorporating students’ opinions are significantly associated with students’ verbal participation. The findings highlight the need for differentiated interaction strategies across learning stages and subjects, providing empirical evidence for optimizing classroom discourse through adaptive teaching practices.