The Emotionally Responsive Elementary Mathematics Model: A Framework for Understanding and Addressing Emotions in Mathematics Learning Opportunities

• In Event: New Frameworks, Methods, and Teaching Strategies for Understanding and Addressing Emotions in Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

Objectives

Despite the well-demonstrated importance of emotions in the classroom (Frenzel et al., 2021), they are largely overlooked in teacher preparation, continuing education, and elementary curricula. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Emotionally Responsive Elementary Mathematics (EREM) Model, a new framework meant to guide K-5th grade teachers in recognizing, labeling, and responding productively to theirs and their students’ emotions during mathematics lessons.

Theoretical Framework

Informed heavily by Control-Value Theory (Pekrun, 2006) and Appraisal Theory (Scherer, 1999), he EREM Model (see Figure 1) illustrates the roles that teachers’ and students’ mathematics emotions play during math learning opportunities. The model includes the following core tenets: 1) That math is a content area where increased negative emotions are more likely to occur, 2) That classroom emotions transfer among classroom participants, and this transfer can occur differently based on individuals’ characteristics and experiences; 3) That in an emotionally responsive math learning environment, the emotions of both the teacher and the students are acknowledged and addressed; 4) That the teacher can and should intentionally leverage emotions for successful mathematics learning by incorporating emotionally responsive practices directly into their real-time mathematics teaching.

Modes of Inquiry

The EREM model is informed by multiple investigations carried out by this team over the past decade exploring the roles of U.S. elementary teachers’ and students’ emotions and beliefs in the classroom (REDACTED). In one large-scale study (REDACTED), investigators collected multiple time points of survey, video observation, and assessment data from among 101 participating teachers and their 1,264 students. Multiple papers using these data have since spoken robustly to the existence, directionality, and content-area and group specificity of classroom emotional transmission in elementary settings (REDACTED).

Evidence

In the above-referenced study, multiple data sources were gathered from both teachers and students across an academic year to capture participants’ emotions, beliefs, and experiences in the core content areas of mathematics, science, and literacy. Survey, video, and state testing data were analyzed in robust analytic frameworks to assess the direct, indirect, and conditional associations among teachers’ emotions, students’ emotions, and classroom instruction in each content area.

Results

To date, this group has found the following that has informed the EREM model: 1) That mathematics emotions transfer among teachers and students, with students from underserved groups most impacted, 2) That classroom emotions can transfer in potentially bi-directional or reciprocal patterns, 3) that teachers’ outwardly-expressed negative emotions can detract from their students’ positive experiences in mathematics and 4) That teachers’ emotions impact their instructional quality and decision-making.

Significance

The EREM model represents one of the first frameworks that formally addresses this. This model is a resource to support both education researchers and elementary mathematics teachers in understanding the ways emotions impact mathematics teaching and learning. As well, this model will provide a structure for how emotion regulation and emotionally responsive instructional strategies can be applied during mathematics lessons to maximize student engagement and learning.

Author

• Leigh McLean, University of Delaware