Negative emotions in the classroom. The role of the teacher

A short insight

Seminararbeit , 2018 , 10 Seiten , Note: 2

Pädagogik - Der Lehrer / Pädagoge

In this paper the phenomenon of the subject of negative emotions in the classroom will be discussed.

At the beginning there will be a clarification of the term emotions in general, which also includes negative emotions and how these can be manifested in the classroom by both parties involved and which situations may lead to the development of negative emotions. Connecting to that, there will be a discussion about the teacher perspective of coping with their negative emotions, which includes stress management and regulation, and also the avoidance of developing negative emotions as a teacher.

Following that, the perspective of the students, on how teachers display their negative emotions in the classroom will be discussed, as students might have a different view on how they perceive the expressions of their teacher. As result of that, a link between the misbehaviour of the students and the reaction of the teachers will be briefly explained. To close the paper, there will be a short conclusion about the topics mentioned above.

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Emotions
2.1 How negative emotions can be manifested in the classroom
2.2 Which situations can lead to the outcome of negative emotions

3. Teachers perspective of coping with their negative emotions
3.1 Stress management of teachers
3.2 Preventing the development of negative emotions

4. Students perspective of coping with negative emotions

5. Link between students' misbehaviour and teachers' reaction

6. Conclusion

Literature

1. Introduction

Emotions have always been a significant factor of the daily routine of the human being. Not only does it affect our behaviour, but also the way we perceive our environment and the people we communicate with. Although many people share the opinion, that emotions are not necessarily an important part of our life, it has been scientifically proven, that emotions have a massive impact on us, even without us noticing it. Considering this, of course emotions play an essential role in the classroom as well, since many emotions can be displayed not only by students but also by teachers. The classroom offers a variety of different situations, where not only positive but also negative emotions can easily arise. In the following paper the phenomenon of the subj ect of negative emotions in the classroom will be discussed. At the beginning there will be a clarification of the term emotions in general, which also includes negative emotions and how these can be manifested in the classroom by both parties involved and which situations may lead to the development of negative emotions. Connecting to that, there will be a discussion about the teacher perspective of coping with their negative emotions, which includes stress management and regulation, and also the avoidance of developing negative emotions as a teacher. Following that, the perspective of the students, on how teachers display their negative emotions in the classroom will be discussed, as students might have a different view on how they perceive the expressions of their teacher. As result of that, a link between the misbehaviour of the students and the reaction of the teachers will be briefly explained. To close the paper, there will be a short conclusion about the topics mentioned above.

2. Emotions

Emotions are believed to be a process, which consists of various components such as appraisal, subjective experience, physiological change, emotional expression and action tendencies. The process of emotion usually starts with an appraisal or a judgement, which then leads to an interpretation of an interaction concerning the relevance for the individual and its goals or concerns. If an individual is making progress towards a goal, positive emotions such as happiness occur. Negative emotions such as anger usually arise, when the individual’s goal is blocked, or personal concerns are receiving more height. Although this might be simple to understand, the difficulty about this topic is, that most individuals have different goals and concerns, hence why the appraisals are also varying, although being confronted with the same triggering situation or event (Sutton 2005: 229).

When linking this topic to the situation in the classroom, it is indispensable, that differing appraisals also have an influence on how students interact with other students or also how the relationship between students and teachers can be influenced. Again, the four components mentioned above play a vital role in this setting. The four components can not only influence the individual, or in this case the teacher or the student, but can also have an impact on each other in some cases. Researchers have discovered, that teachers usually have different emotional experiences in the classroom, as they are surrounded by students who are aware of and influenced by their teachers' positive and negative emotions (Sutton 2005: 229-230).

2.1 How negative emotions can be manifested in the classroom

Negative emotions can be manifested and displayed in various ways, as every individual has different methods to cope with them. This subtopic can again be linked to the four factors that are included in the emotion process. Especially the factor of physiological changes illustrates perfectly, how negative emotions can be manifested in the classroom. The physiological changes include a variety of changes in the body of the person who is feeling the emotion, such as a rising body temperature, changes in the heart rate and blood pressure, and the most obvious change also includes the facial expressions. Of course, these physiological may not only be displayed by teachers, but also by students when they experience an upsetting situation. Also, response and action tendencies can be a part of how negative emotions are displayed in the classroom, but these tendencies can be manifested in a broad variety of manners, as not every individual shows their emotions the same way. Since the subjective experience is one of the most important factors, it is very difficult to identify specific patterns in the emotion process. Although it is common knowledge that the emotion anger is typically associated with specific facial expressions, the action tendency of striking out and the appraisal of putting the blame on others is also a part of the emotion anger. It still has to be kept in mind, that not everybody shows these kinds of signals, as there are people who would rather move away when they are angry, than move toward their target and strike out. This proves, that not every subjective experience of an emotion process is automatically linked to a certain kind of physiological change or appearance (Sutton 2005: 230).

2.2 Which situations can lead to the outcome of negative emotions

There is a variety of chances and situations that can lead to the occurrence of negative emotions such as anger, fear or frustration not only for teachers but also for students. Especially the teacher-student interaction plays a vital role in this case, as this is the most important factor when discussing emotion processes in general in the classroom. Recent researches have shown, that teachers' communication behaviours are directly linked to the students' emotional experiences. The relationship between teacher and students can not only influence the outcome of negative emotions, but also student engagement in the class and also eventual academic success. Missing emotional support coming from the teacher can also lead to students feeling emotionally stressed and lowers the students' mental health in general. In this case it also displays the state of unavailability in the teacher, where the students do not get the chance to receive the emotional support they need. Another study about this subtopic shows, that when students receive higher levels of emotional support from their teacher and have to do engage in less emotional work, the outcomes are more positive as the students develop more enjoyment towards the learning experience. The use of sarcasm by the teacher can also lead to the students feeling shame or other negative emotions, hence why it is vital to examine in which situations it is appropriate for a teacher to use sarcasm as a communicational instrument. Finally, if the teacher fails to stay in the classroom with their mind or seem to be absent mentally, this might lead to the students feeling hopeless (Mazer et al. 2014: 150-152).

For teachers, there are many factors as well that can lead to the occurrence of negative emotions. In this context, students' violations of rules and poor performances by the students coming from laziness and inattention have a high chance to result in negative emotions being developed by the teacher. Other sources such as administrative work and uncooperative colleagues or parents might also result in negative emotions coming from the teacher (Sutton 2005: 231).

3. Teachers perspective of coping with their negative emotions

Teachers can experience a variety of negative emotions in the classroom, but the two most frequent negative emotions include anger and frustration. These emotions can arise from a number of disruptions of their personal goals. Since negative emotions also include a moral component, they can also be productive and serve to uphold accepted standards of moral conduct. About 30% of the teachers share the believe, that the expression of negative emotions such as anger can make them more effective. Although this may be the case, teachers also fear that they lose control over their intense anger, hence why some teachers use simulated anger in order to control their students. The majority of teachers in middle school report that they hold in their anger or try to lower it down to not let their frustration interrupt their teaching. Teachers also report that they have issues with regulating their anger because it is severely difficult to always maintain patience with the students. Teachers mostly share the opinion that reducing negative emotions helps them to keep the focus on academic learning rather than being distracted by their negative emotions. This can not only help them with managing and discipline, but also with keeping up positive emotions with their students (Sutton 2005: 231-232).

3.1 Stress management of teachers

Teaching pupils who lack motivation, maintaining discipline in the classroom, coping with change and dealing with colleagues are only some of the factors that contribute to the development of stress as a teacher. Needless to say, every teacher has individual factors that make them feel stressed in their environment. In order to cope with those factors, there is a distinction between two strategies. Firstly, there is the direct-action technique, which consists of the teacher directly eliminating the sources of their stress. The teacher has to start with identifying the exact source of their stress development and after that, the teacher has to organise some form of action that can successfully deal with changing the current situation so that the demands can no longer occur in the future. Direct-action techniques can involve simply managing and organising oneself better, or it can also mean to develop new knowledge and skills. The second approach is the palliative technique, which involves not dealing with the source of the stress, but rather with lessening the feeling of stress that occurs. In this case, the teacher is asked to change how the situation that usually causes stress is appraised. Strategies like that can help teachers not only to deal with stress, but also helps to regain the sense of being relaxed in the classroom when teachers are confronted with various negative feelings and emotions (Kyriacou 2001: 29-30).

3.2 Preventing the development of negative emotions

Teachers have often reported about using a variety of strategies to manage the arising negative emotions in the classroom. These strategies have to function to prevent the emotions to fully develop and also to manage themselves in the classroom when the negative emotions are already intense. Another function is to help the teachers deal with their feelings when the situation or the incident is already over. The preventative strategies may consist of regulating and modifying situations, that can lead to the occurrence of negative emotions. An example for this would be teachers who prepare themselves even better, when they already have a feeling that they might develop negative emotions. The most frequent situations, where teachers develop negative emotions, are during management or discipline problems. In order to calm the situation down, teachers reported to tell a joke or tell the students to take a “time out”. These strategies did not only help the teacher to prevent themselves from developing negative emotions, but it was also no barrier to their academic goals. A particularly effective way to prevent negative emotions to fully develop, is to change one's view of the situation and reappraise it. Also using self-talk and reminding oneself that they have children in their class also helps to stop developing negative emotions. Some teachers also remind themselves of previous situations where they had negative emotions drive their actions with poor outcomes to make them less likely to act like this another time. Other strategies that take place after the incident already happened, include venting to colleagues or family when teachers experienced a negative event in the classroom. Although this might help the teacher to cope with the event, it is also said in some literature, that some kinds of venting might not be productive, but only puts the feelings in the wrong perspective and gives them more weight than they originally had. The only way that venting can be productive is when it helps to reappraise the situation and gain a new perspective about it. Joking or discussing about how to prevent this from happening again is the right approach to gain productivity out of venting about a negative situation that one experienced in the classroom (Sutton 2005: 232).

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• Hochschule: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
• Note: 2
• Autor: Romana Pfurtscheller (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2018
• Seiten: 10
• Katalognummer: V947256
• ISBN (eBook): 9783346282101
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: negative