Student teacher inter brain coupling forecast cross semester academic fluctuation in real world classrooms

Student performance fluctuates across learning, raising questions about what drives these changes and whether instruction equitably supports diverse learners. Although teachers likely shape these trajectories, the pathways linking student-teacher interaction to individual performance variation remain unclear. The present study investigates student-teacher inter-brain coupling in authentic classroom through three-semester longitudinal hyperscanning. Using wearable hyperscanning technology, a total of 4,175 longitudinal EEG recordings were collected from 107 junior and senior students across 393 regular Chinese and math classes. While static models revealed a negative association between student-teacher inter-brain coupling and math performance, which likely reflects teacher selection effects, dynamic analyses showed that increases in coupling, especially in the high-beta band, predicted subsequent improvement in both subjects. These findings highlight the functional significance of inter-brain coupling in real-world classroom learning, providing robust ecological validity and supporting its potential as a measurable marker of effective pedagogy.