"I'm So Glass Half-Empty": Emotions and Their Impact During the Learning-to-Teach Experience

• In Event: 61.051 - Lives of Teachers SIG Showcase Paper Session

Abstract

Pre-service teachers (PSTs) can have vastly different emotional experiences from one another during their teaching practicums based on the alignment or misalignment between PSTs’ personal goals and their experiences of learning to teach. Unfortunately, when PSTs have negative learning experiences and thus, negative emotions, they may not feel comfortable voicing their struggles or know how to effectively cope with their emotions. To compound these issues, teacher preparation programs, places where PSTs could learn about emotions and how to cope with them, generally focus on cognitive aspects of teaching with little attention to the affective domain. This study seeks to understand how a PST’s emotions developed and impacted her learning-to-teach experience without her learning about the emotional dimension of teaching.

Author

• Megan Stump, University of Maryland - College Park