A Physiological Challenge/Threat Approach to Stressful Teacher-Student Interaction

• In Event: Affordances and Modeling of Intensive Data

Abstract

Theoretical Framework
Teachers’ interaction with students is one of the main reasons for teachers to choose the profession, but can at the same time be very stressful (Chang, 2009; Spilt, Koomen, & Thijs, 2011). As teachers feel responsible for the social relations and climate in their classrooms, difficulties in this respect can lead to negative emotions and even burnout.

Purpose & Research Question
Although on a general level these associations have been studied, it is not clear what actually happens in the classroom. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by discussing the behavioral and physiological reactions of teachers during stressful situations (i.e., situations with an increased heart rate). The research question was: What is the interpersonal nature and physiological characterization of high heart rate events?

Data Sources
Eighty Dutch secondary education teachers and their classes were participating and gave written informed consent. Teachers’ behavior and physiology were measured during one lesson of approximately 40 minutes. The raw electrocardiogram signal of the teacher was measured with the VU University – Ambulatory Monitoring System (Willemsen, De Geus, Klaver, Van Doornen, & Carrofl, 1996). Teachers’ heart rate (+2SD above a teachers’ individual mean level) was used to select the stressful situations. Interpersonal behavior of both the teacher and students was assessed based on a video recording of the lesson with Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (Pennings et al., 2017). In the analyses, we used the average of three trained coders during each high heart rate situation (ICC > .60).

Method of Analysis
For the selected situations we calculated the level of complementarity between teacher and student as the cross-correlation between their moment-to-moment behavior. For the challenge/threat characterization, teachers’ cardiac output (CO) was characterized as representing a challenge (high CO) or threat (low CO) reaction based on the biophysiological model of challenge and threat (Seery, 2011).

Preliminary Findings
Teachers had on average nine high heart rate events during their lesson (range 0-44; see Figure 1 for examples). During these moments, they showed interpersonal behavior in line with the complementarity principle. As this pattern of behavior is beneficial for student and teacher outcomes, it is interesting to see if teachers experience behaving like this as a challenge or threat. Most teachers had both situations with a challenge and a threat approach amongst their high heart rate situations with large inter-individual differences in the exact link between behavior and challenge/threat. Specific examples will be discussed during the symposium.

Discussion
The findings of the present study underscore the potential of challenge vs. threat approaches of classroom situations. Although most teachers showed both challenge and threat approaches, the specific link between threat and the interpersonal situation at stake might be valuable information for teachers’ professional development. Using physiological measures in the context of teaching might help to pinpoint situations and behavior of teachers that is (positively) challenging or (negatively) threatening, and could thus guide teacher coaching.

Authors

• Monika H Donker, Utrecht University

• Tamara van Gog, Utrecht University

• Nora McIntyre, University of Sheffield

• Mariska van den Hove, Utrecht University

• Tim Mainhard, Leiden University