Cognitive holding power refers to the proactive force within a learning environment that encourages learners to engage in diff erent types of cognitive activities. Based on the cognitive processes it prompts learners to enter, it can be classifi ed into primary cognitive holding power and secondary cognitive holding power.Taking 620 senior high school students from six schools in Binzhou City as the research subjects, this study explores the internal mechanism through which cognitive holding power in senior high school geography classrooms enhances academic performance in geography. The findings reveal that applying primary cognitive holding power in geography classrooms shows a ceiling eff ect in terms of teaching eff ectiveness. It only improves learning engagement—and thereby geography performance—among students scoring below 75 points in geography.In contrast, appropriately applied secondary cognitive holding power broadly promotes geography learning. It enhances geography performance through the mediating role of learning engagement. To optimize instructional eff ectiveness and classroom effi ciency, teachers can stratify teaching content to align with diff erentiated levels of cognitive holding power, and design fl exible task requirements based on students’ individual cognitive diff erences.