Curiosity… Confusion? Frustration! The role and sequencing of emotions during mathematics problem solving

Quantitative evaluation of a theoretical-conceptual model based on affective and socio-behavioral dimensions to explain the academic performance of mathematics students

Objective

There is evidence that suggests that affective dimensions, personality traits, as well as students' cooperative interpersonal interactions, are an important element in the students learning process. In this work we propose a theoretical model, based on evidence, that shows the direct and indirect relationships between these factors and academic performance in mathematics courses, in undergraduate and school students.

Methods

To understand the type of relationships between these variables, the PANAS psychometric test of positive and negative affect, the BIG FIVE personality test and the economic decision game DUPLES GAME were applied. The study sample was 130 students between 17 and 22 years of age from undergraduate and school (M ± SD = 20.1 ± 3.99).

Results

From a path analysis, statistically significant relationships were found, for example, a direct relationship between neuroticism and positive affect, which in turn is related to academic performance. We also found a direct relationship between neuroticism and negative affect, extraversion and positive affect. This allows us to propose that some of the independent variables of the model directly and indirectly influence the academic performance of students in the subject of mathematics.

Conclusion

Positive affect and negative affect directly affect academic performance in mathematics, neuroticism has a direct impact on negative affect and extraversion direct impact on positive affect. Consequently, there are direct and indirect relationships between personality traits and affective dimensions, which affect the academic performance of mathematics students.

How Does Active Learning Pedagogy Shape Learner Curiosity? A Multi-Site Mediator Study of Learner Engagement among 45,972 Children

Curiosity is one of the most fundamental biological drives that stimulates individuals' intense desire to explore, learn, and create. Yet, mechanisms of how curiosity is influenced by instructional pedagogy remain unclear. To shed light on this gap, the present study sets out to investigate the underlying channels linking active learning pedagogy, learner engagement, and learner curiosity, employing a partial least-squares structural equation model leveraging the Social and Emotional Skills Survey dataset across ten sites (N = 45,972). Findings indicate that active learning pedagogy is positively associated with learner engagement (std. β = 0.016, p = 0.005), but there lacks a significant direct effect on learner curiosity (std. β = -0.001, p = 0.738). Structural mediation results show that learner engagement is a key mediating channel linking active learning pedagogy and learner curiosity (std. β = 0.013, p = 0.005).

"Let's get back to normal": emotions mediate the effects of persuasive messages on willingness to vaccinate for COVID-19

Objective

We examined the effectiveness of three different messages for persuading individuals to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and the role that emotions play in persuasion.

Methods

Four hundred-thirty-six participants reported their concern about the COVID-19 pandemic and confidence/hesitancy toward vaccines. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three text conditions: (1) self-interest: a persuasive message that focused on how much of a "serious threat COVID-19 is to you," and to get vaccinated to "protect yourself"; (2) self-interest + altruistic: a persuasive message that focused on the "threat to you and your community" and to get vaccinated to "protect you and your loved ones"; (3) self-interest + altruistic + normal: a persuasive message that included (2) but added "This is the only way we can get back to a normal life."; and, (4) a baseline control: no text. After reading, participants reported their emotions toward COVID-19 vaccines and their willingness to get vaccinated.

Results

Individuals in the self-interest + altruistic + normal condition were more willing to get vaccinated compared to the control condition and self-interest + altruistic condition. However, there were no differences in willingness between the self-interest + altruistic + normal condition and the self-interest condition. Moreover, emotions mediated relations between vaccine confidence/hesitancy and willingness.

Conclusion

A message that focuses on "getting back to normal" can achieve important public health action by increasing vaccine uptake to protect the population. Future work is needed across multiple countries and contexts (i.e., non-pandemic) to assess message effectiveness.

Facial Expressions as an Index of Listening Difficulty and Emotional Response

Knowledge about listening difficulty experienced during a task can be used to better understand speech perception processes, to guide amplification outcomes, and can be used by individuals to decide whether to participate in communication. Another factor affecting these decisions is individuals' emotional response which has not been measured objectively previously. In this study, we describe a novel method of measuring listening difficulty and affect of individuals in adverse listening situations using automatic facial expression algorithm. The purpose of our study was to determine if facial expressions of confusion and frustration are sensitive to changes in listening difficulty. We recorded speech recognition scores, facial expressions, subjective listening effort scores, and subjective emotional responses in 33 young participants with normal hearing. We used the signal-to-noise ratios of -1, +2, and +5 dB SNR and quiet conditions to vary the difficulty level. We found that facial expression of confusion and frustration increased with increase in difficulty level, but not with change in each level. We also found a relationship between facial expressions and both subjective emotion ratings and subjective listening effort. Emotional responses in the form of facial expressions show promise as a measure of affect and listening difficulty. Further research is needed to determine the specific contribution of affect to communication in challenging listening environments.

Chinese Students' Perceptions of the Motivational Climate in College English Courses: Relationships Between Course Perceptions, Engagement, and Achievement

Effective teachers create a motivational climate that engages students in course activities in ways that lead to increased learning and achievement. Although researchers have identified motivational climate variables that are associated with students’ engagement and achievement, less is known about how these variables are related in different courses and cultures. The purpose of the two studies presented in this paper was to contribute to this research literature by examining these associations within the context of college English courses in two Chinese universities. Specifically, we investigated the relationships between students’ perceptions of the motivational climate (i.e., perceptions of empowerment/autonomy, usefulness, success, interest, and caring), cognitive and behavioral engagement, and achievement. This is the first study to examine the connections between all of these variables in one path model in college English courses in China. We administered surveys at two different Chinese universities (n = 332 and 259) and used regression and path analysis to examine the relationships among the variables. We demonstrated that (a) students’ perceptions of the motivational climate were related to their cognitive engagement, (b) cognitive engagement was related to their behavioral engagement, and (c) behavioral engagement predicted their achievement. These findings are consistent with and extend the growing body of literature on motivational climate and engagement, and they highlight the importance of some motivational climate perceptions over others as significant predictors of cognitive engagement. We conclude that effective English language teachers in China do the following: help students to believe that they can be successful, trigger and maintain students’ interest, and empower students by providing them with choices in activities and assignments.

The Effects of Teachers’ Error Orientations on Students’ Mathematics Learning: The Role of Teacher Emotions

Several attempts have been made to explore the factors influencing teacher emotions, most of which focus on external factors such as student behaviors and classroom teaching. However, research on the links between internal factors and teacher emotions is scant. Based on the control value theory, this article explored the influence of junior secondary mathematics teachers’ error orientations on their emotions, and how teachers’ error orientations and emotions were related to students’ mathematics learning strategies. A sample of 70 junior high school mathematics teachers and their students (N = 2453) in mainland China participated in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. The results showed that teachers’ positive error orientation increased their positive emotions and reduced their negative emotions, whereas teachers’ negative error orientation increased their negative emotions and reduced their positive emotions. Regarding the effects of teacher emotions, teachers’ positive emotions increased students’ positive mathematics achievement emotions and reduced their negative emotions. Meanwhile, students’ negative mathematics achievement emotions significantly reduced their adoption of desirable mathematics learning strategies. The findings highlight the importance of teachers’ positive error orientation and positive emotion for students’ mathematics learning.

Similarities in Procedures Used to Solve Mathematical Problems and Video Games

Video game use is widespread among all age groups, from young children to older adults. The wide variety of video game genres, which are adapted to all tastes and needs, is one of the factors that makes them so attractive. In many cases, video games function as an outlet for stress associated with everyday life by providing an escape from reality. We took advantage of this recreational aspect of video games when investigating whether there are similarities between the procedures used to pass a video game level and those used to solve a mathematical problem. Moreover, we also questioned whether the use of video games can reduce the negative emotions generated by mathematical problems and logical–mathematical knowledge in general. To verify this, we used the Portal 2 video game as a research method or tool. This video game features concepts from the spatial–geometric field that the students must identify and relate in order to carry out the procedures required to solve challenges in each level. The procedures were recorded in a questionnaire that was separated into two blocks of content in order to compare them with the procedures used to solve mathematical problems. The first block pertains to the procedures employed and the second block to the emotions that the students experienced when playing the video game and when solving a mathematical problem. The results reveal that the recreational aspect of video games is more important than the educational aspect. However, the students were not aware of using the problem-solving procedures they learned at school to solve different challenges in the video games. Furthermore, overcoming video game challenges stimulates positive emotions as opposed to the negative emotions generated when solving mathematical problems.

Control and value appraisals and online multiple-text comprehension in primary school: The mediating role of boredom and the moderating role of word-reading fluency

BACKGROUND

Online multiple-text comprehension is a key skill of the 21st Century, yet the study of its relations with boredom in young students has been disregarded. Boredom is an achievement emotion expected to be predicted negatively by antecedents like control and value appraisals and to be associated to a negative performance. Notwithstanding its documented domain-specificity, scarce attention has been paid to investigating these relations with primary-school students in the reading domain, and specifically for online multiple-text comprehension, and to how such relations are moderated by basic cognitive abilities.

AIMS

Considering separately two settings (homework, test), we studied the mediation of boredom in the relation between control-value appraisals and online multiple-text comprehension in primary-school students, focusing on the moderating role of word-reading fluency.

SAMPLE

Participants were 334 fourth and fifth graders.

METHODS

We evaluated students' reading-related self-efficacy and task-value, reading-related boredom for homework and tests, word-reading fluency, and online multiple-text comprehension.

RESULTS

Path analyses revealed negative relations between control-value appraisals and boredom for homework and tests, and between boredom and online multiple-text comprehension for tests only. For the latter, word-reading fluency moderated the relation between appraisals, boredom, and comprehension: Boredom negatively related to comprehension only for students with high word-reading fluency.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings are discussed focusing on antecedents of online multiple-text comprehension as a literacy skill critical in the 21st Century. We underlined their implications for learning in general and specifically for the current educational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Surprise, Curiosity, and Confusion Promote Knowledge Exploration: Evidence for Robust Effects of Epistemic Emotions

Research has started to acknowledge the importance of emotions for complex learning and cognitive performance. However, research on epistemic emotions has only recently become more prominent. Research in educational psychology in particular has mostly focused on examining achievement emotions instead of epistemic emotions. Furthermore, only few studies have addressed functional mechanisms underlying multiple different epistemic emotions simultaneously, and only one study has systematically compared the origins and effects of epistemic emotions with other emotions relevant to knowledge generation (i.e., achievement emotions; Vogl et al., 2019). The present article aimed to replicate the findings from Vogl et al. (2019) exploring within-person interrelations, origins, and outcomes of the epistemic emotions surprise, curiosity, and confusion, and the achievement emotions pride and shame, as well as to analyze their robustness and generalizability across two different study settings (online; Study 1, n = 169 vs. lab; Study 2, n = 79). In addition, the previous findings by Vogl et al. (2019, Study 3) and the present two new studies were meta-analytically integrated to consolidate evidence on origins and outcomes of epistemic emotions. The results of the two new studies largely replicated the findings by Vogl et al. (2019). Combined with the meta-analytic results, the findings confirm distinct patterns of antecedents for epistemic vs. achievement emotions: Pride and shame were more strongly associated with the correctness of a person's answer (i.e., accuracy), whereas surprise, curiosity, and confusion were more strongly related to incorrect responses a person was confident in (i.e., high-confidence errors) producing cognitive incongruity. Furthermore, in contrast to achievement emotions, epistemic emotions had positive effects on the exploration of knowledge. Implications for research and practice are discussed.