Classroom environment, academic achievement, and students' emotions : Multi-level implications of control-value theory

Abstract

Recent research on students’ academic emotions focused on their interrelations with learning processes, but neglected the impact of educational environments. In the present study, we analyzed the influence of classroom environment variables on the development of students’ emotions in mathematics. The focus was on the impact of the ability composition of classrooms. Using Pekrun’s (2000) control-value theory of academic emotions, we assumed that students’ emotions depend on their control-related and value-related appraisals (e.g., self-concepts of ability, values of achievement). Furthermore, we hypothesized (a) that individual achievement exerts positive effects on control and, thereby, on academic emotions, whereas (b) the average achievement of the classroom has negative effects on subjective control and resulting emotions due to social comparison processes implying lower chances for success in high-achieving classrooms. The latter hypothesis would imply a Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect (Marsh, 1987) on students’ emotions. Assumptions were tested using data from the longitudinal Project for the Analysis of Learning and Achievement in Mathematics (PALMA). HLM was used to analyze effects of grade 5 individual and classroom level achievement on students’ emotions in grade 6, and effects of grade 6 achievement on emotions in grade 7. Samples consisted of N = 1,762 / 1,741 students from 78 / 73 classrooms for the grade 5 to 6 and grade 6 to 7 intervals. Achievement was assessment by a mathematics test, and students’ emotions in mathematics by our Academic Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ; Pekrun, G?tz, Titz, & Perry, 2002). First results imply that grade 5 individual achievement had a positive effect on subsequent enjoyment and a negative effect on anxiety, whereas average classroom achievement had a negative effect on enjoyment and a positive effect on anxiety. Findings thus corroborate that the BFLP-effect may be important for the development of academic emotions. Implications for future research and educational practice will be discussed.