Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise
Children experience a variety of emotions in achievement settings. Yet, mathematics-related emotions other than anxiety are understudied, especially for young children entering primary school. The current study reports the prevalence and intensity of six basic, discrete achievement emotions (joy/hap...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1466345/full |
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| author | Traci Shizu Kutaka Pavel Chernyavskiy Tara Hofkens |
| author_facet | Traci Shizu Kutaka Pavel Chernyavskiy Tara Hofkens |
| author_sort | Traci Shizu Kutaka |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Children experience a variety of emotions in achievement settings. Yet, mathematics-related emotions other than anxiety are understudied, especially for young children entering primary school. The current study reports the prevalence and intensity of six basic, discrete achievement emotions (joy/happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust) expressed on the faces of 15 kindergarten-aged children as they solved increasingly complex arithmetic story problems in a 3-month teaching experiment. We also examine how the extent to which the expressed emotions influenced arithmetic accuracy at the end of an instructional session at the beginning, middle, and end of the teaching experiment. Through the application of FaceReader9, the three most intensely expressed emotions at the launch of the instructional sessions were happiness/joy, sadness, and surprise. Using functional regressions, these expressed achievement emotions predicted arithmetic accuracy at the end of the instructional session. However, when the effect of session over time was added to the model, the relationship between happiness/joy and accuracy, as well as sadness and accuracy, became non-significant. In contrast, the relationship between surprise and accuracy remained significant. We discuss potential explanations for these patterns of significance and non-significance. This study serves as a critical first step in clarifying how emotions contribute to problem-solving behavior as we grapple with how to respond to the sometimes intense, but always present emotions of young learners in ways that are affirming, as well as mathematically productive and generative. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ec7a2e9764654625b601b07fbafff45b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-ec7a2e9764654625b601b07fbafff45b2025-01-13T06:10:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782025-01-011510.3389/fpsyg.2024.14663451466345Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surpriseTraci Shizu Kutaka0Pavel Chernyavskiy1Tara Hofkens2School of Education and Human Development, Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesSchool of Education and Human Development, Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesChildren experience a variety of emotions in achievement settings. Yet, mathematics-related emotions other than anxiety are understudied, especially for young children entering primary school. The current study reports the prevalence and intensity of six basic, discrete achievement emotions (joy/happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, and disgust) expressed on the faces of 15 kindergarten-aged children as they solved increasingly complex arithmetic story problems in a 3-month teaching experiment. We also examine how the extent to which the expressed emotions influenced arithmetic accuracy at the end of an instructional session at the beginning, middle, and end of the teaching experiment. Through the application of FaceReader9, the three most intensely expressed emotions at the launch of the instructional sessions were happiness/joy, sadness, and surprise. Using functional regressions, these expressed achievement emotions predicted arithmetic accuracy at the end of the instructional session. However, when the effect of session over time was added to the model, the relationship between happiness/joy and accuracy, as well as sadness and accuracy, became non-significant. In contrast, the relationship between surprise and accuracy remained significant. We discuss potential explanations for these patterns of significance and non-significance. This study serves as a critical first step in clarifying how emotions contribute to problem-solving behavior as we grapple with how to respond to the sometimes intense, but always present emotions of young learners in ways that are affirming, as well as mathematically productive and generative.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1466345/fullachievement emotionsearly childhood mathematicsarithmeticstory problemsautomatic facial coding |
| spellingShingle | Traci Shizu Kutaka Pavel Chernyavskiy Tara Hofkens Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise Frontiers in Psychology achievement emotions early childhood mathematics arithmetic story problems automatic facial coding |
| title | Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise |
| title_full | Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise |
| title_fullStr | Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise |
| title_full_unstemmed | Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise |
| title_short | Achievement emotions in kindergarten: the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy, sadness, and surprise |
| title_sort | achievement emotions in kindergarten the association of solution accuracy with discrete joy sadness and surprise |
| topic | achievement emotions early childhood mathematics arithmetic story problems automatic facial coding |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1466345/full |
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