Emotions … learning: for, in and are

Abstract

With the rise of concern about mental health in Academia (Harrer et al., 2019), an investigation of opportunities for emotional self-awareness that a third-level classroom instruction might offer to students appears to be timely. While theoretical appraisals have elaborated a classification of research approaches to studying student emotions in the classroom (McNaughton, 2013; Zembylas, 2007), teaching practices that correspond to them have not been systematized yet. To fill in the gap, a systematic literature review of the relevant empirical peer-reviewed educational literature was performed. 23 articles published in the past 5 years were synthesized, grouped by educational research approaches, corresponding to existing theoretical classifications. Results suggest that there are three main means that teachers use for raising emotional self-awareness: normative, diagnostic, and thematic. Supporters of the first manipulate features of the task and course design to ensure that only beneficial learning emotions occur in the classroom. Teachers in the second devise reflective questions to students which help to identify areas of concerns and modify the learning path of a student or a team. In the thematic approach group, emotions and emotive concepts are incorporated as the objectives for student critical inquiry. The three approaches differed in the contextual diversity of their implementation. Assessment of methodological limitations of the current study suggested that several adjustments and additions to the study design might improve the depth of the account in the derived classification of teaching practice. Overall concerns about each of the approaches were also expressed: the first does not necessarily lead to students becoming aware of their emotions, the second tends to focus on negative aspects of the student learning experience, and the third might bring social compliance rather than recognition of one's emotional state. Nevertheless, the classification in its current state might already serve the purpose of promoting professional reflection and instructional innovation for teachers in Higher Education.