Pattern and Dynamics of Teacher Emotions during Teaching: A Case Study of a Senior Secondary Mathematics Teacher

Abstract

Understanding the emotional dimension of classroom practices benefits sustainable education. However, the dynamic nature of teacher emotions during teaching remains understudied. To acquire an “in-depth” description of the emotional phenomena during teaching, a case study was adopted to examine the pattern and dynamics of a senior secondary mathematics teacher’s teaching-related emotions. Seven new mathematics lessons were observed and videotaped, and three video-stimulated, post-lesson teacher interviews were conducted. Based on appraisal theories of emotions, thematic analysis and content analysis were mainly used to analyse the data. The study revealed that the teacher most frequently experienced happiness/satisfaction as positive emotions and confusion/surprise as negative emotions. The emotions followed a three-stage process: perceptions, multilevel appraisals, and responses. The teacher most often perceived her students’ cognitive accuracy and adopted goal/need conduciveness/attainment, the discrepancy from expectations, and causal attribution as core appraisal dimensions. Teacher emotions in classrooms were also often hierarchical and cumulative, shifting from more negative at the beginning of a new semester to more positive at the middle of the semester. This study shed light on the dynamic development of teacher emotions, extending the theories and process models of emotions from the psychological field to educational research and facilitating teachers’ sustainable professional development.

School heads’ clinical supervision practices and emerging teacher emotions in Tanzania secondary schools

“…Positive emotions are expected to have a positive influence on teaching and learning. Negative emotions, on the other hand, are negative feelings (fear, worry, irritable, doubt, brood, confusion, dissatisfaction, anxious, and despondent [ 69 , 70 , 75 , 80 ]. [ 72 ] write: “negative emotions tend to be accompanied by physiological and cognitive responses that interfere with mental and physical functioning.…”

An ecological examination of the emotions of Chinese high school mathematics teachers in a long-term teaching improvement program

“…In contrast, less research has been conducted on high school mathematics teachers’ emotions. Scholars have focused on the relationship between high school mathematics teachers’ emotions and classroom teaching in regular and innovative teaching ( Martínez-Sierra et al, 2019 ; Jiang et al, 2021 , 2022 ). These studies have typically collected data through questionnaires, classroom observations, interviews, and teacher self-reports, and the studies have ranged from individual cases to groups of teachers.…”

“…Among the available studies, research on language teachers dominates the discipline research ( Golombek and Doran, 2014 ; Chu et al, 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al, 2021 ; Sun and Yang, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2022 ), and the research on key stages is mainly focused on primary school and university teachers ( Gu, 2016 ; Chen, 2017 , 2019 ; Lu and Zhang, 2021 ), whereas high school mathematics teacher emotions have received less attention ( Martínez-Sierra et al, 2019 ; Jiang et al, 2021 ). However, the uniqueness of high school mathematics teachers in terms of their key stages and disciplines, particularly in China, where high school mathematics teachers are also under the pressure of Gaokao (the National College Entrance Examinations; Jiang et al, 2022 ), makes their professional background and emotional development unique and deserving of more in-depth and focused research.…”