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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1470565
Real-Time Fluctuations in Student Emotions and Relations with Day of the Week, Time of the Day and Teaching Methods
Provisionally accepted- Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
This study investigated the real-time variability of secondary school students' academic emotions (i.e., enjoyment, enthusiasm, boredom and frustration) in mathematics classes, examining their relation to the day of the week, time of the day, and teaching methods. Utilizing experience sampling methodology, the research captures the dynamic nature of emotions as states, providing insights into their situational dynamics. 440 students reported twice during their mathematics classes for a period of ten school days on their real-time experiences of academic enjoyment, enthusiasm, boredom and frustration. Additionally, their teachers indicated the teaching methods that were used on each measurement occasion. Results indicated students to have a more positive emotional pattern on Fridays (i.e., a "Thank God it's Friday" effect) and Wednesdays, likely due to the anticipation of leisure time. Additionally, a "Frustrating Tuesday" effect was observed, while no evidence was found for a "Blue Monday" effect. Time of the day effects were less consistent, with frustration increasing throughout the day and boredom being higher in the afternoon, possibly due to postprandial somnolence (i.e., post-meal dip). Teaching methods differently related to emotions; during independent and group work students experienced more enjoyment and enthusiasm but also more frustration compared to whole-class instruction. During classroom discussion more frustration was experienced relative to whole-class instruction. Female students experienced less enthusiasm than male students, and higher ability students experienced more enjoyment, enthusiasm and less boredom than lower ability students. This study underscores the importance of considering temporal factors and teaching methods in understanding students' emotional experiences in educational settings.
Keywords: academic emotions, Day of the week, Time of the day, teaching methods, Experience Sampling Method, Mathematics
Received: 25 Jul 2024; Accepted: 29 Oct 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Camerman, Kuppens, Lavrijsen and Verschueren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Eline Camerman, Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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