Teachers’ positive emotions in the classroom : An intraindividual analysis on their antecedents

Abstract

Theoretical framework.Teachers’ emotions are an essential part of instructional settings and are related to a variety of important outcomes, such as well-being and health (e.g., Chang, 2009), classroom effectiveness (e.g., Sutton, 2005), as well as student emotions and motivation (e.g., Bakker, 2005; Becker, Goetz, Morger, & Ranellucci, 2014). Clearly it is important to study the antecedents of teachers’ emotions, particularly when constructing interventions to foster positive affective experiences in class. According to Frenzel et al.’s (2009) reciprocal model on the causes and effects of teacher emotions, teachers’ appraisals of students’ classroom behaviors are important sources of teachers’ emotions. The theory assumes that teachers judge whether or not students’ behavior is aligned with their classroom goals (e.g., cognitive growth, promoting students’ motivation, or maintaining discipline), which influences teachers’ emotional experiences (e.g., experiencing pride when classroom goals are attained). However, to date, these assumptions have not been empirically tested with intra-individual analyses.Objectives.In the present study, our aims were (1) to study intra-individual variability in teachers’ positive emotional experiences in the classroom, (2) to investigate how students’ classroom behavior (i.e., performance, motivation, and discipline) is associated with teachers’ emotions, and (3) to examine the mediating role of teachers’ cognitive appraisals.Method.Secondary-education teachers (N = 31) participated with one of their mathematic classes (N = 587 students) in a diary study for three consecutive weeks (Ø = 9.1 mathematic lessons). Students reported their motivation (3 items, α = .72), discipline (2 items, α = .77) and performance (2 items, α = .66) after each mathematic lesson (this data was aggregated for each class and lesson), and teachers reported their cognitive appraisals (three single items for goal congruence, goal importance, and control beliefs) as well as their enjoyment (2 items, α = .72) and pride (2 items, α = .69) for the same lessons.Results.Given that our data represents a nested data structure (measurement points within teachers), multilevel path analyses were conducted with MPlus 7.0 software. Results indicate that teachers’ enjoyment and pride showed considerable within person variation with pride having more variance on the between-person-level (ICC = .34) than enjoyment (ICC = .18). Students’ motivation and discipline explained 22% of the variance in teachers’ enjoyment and 21% of the variance in teachers’ pride. Students’ performance was not significantly related to teachers’ emotions. Explained variance increased for enjoyment (56%) and pride (47%) when teachers’ appraisals were integrated into the model. Moreover, appraisals mediated the influence of students’ classroom behavior on teachers’ emotions, except for students’ motivation. The direct effect was reduced but remained significant.Discussion.Our results demonstrate that teachers’ emotional experiences are highly situational: Teachers’ enjoyment and pride change from lesson-to-lesson much more than they change from teacher-to-teacher. Furthermore, teachers’ emotions systematically vary according to classroom conditions and cognitive appraisals, with cognitive appraisals being the stronger predictor. A clear implication of these results is that emotions can be greatly influenced by situational appraisals and are not predetermined by personal characteristics or students’ behavior in class.