A Differentiated Insight into the Emotional Classroom Climate in School Mathematics Lessons

A Comparative Analysis of Grades 3–6 Participant-Produced Drawings in the Context of Arithmetic and Geometry Lessons

Abstract

Students experience a wide range of emotions in the classroom, such as joy, fear, and boredom, among others, which are linked to motivation and have a strong impact on academic achievement. Research has repeatedly indicated that positive emotions towards school decline as early as primary school age. The aim of this study is to investigate the development of emotions in mathematics lessons during primary school (Grades 3–6) using participant-produced drawings and to determine whether there are differences in emotional classroom climate between arithmetic and geometry lessons. The results indicated a decline in positive emotions, and, consequently a growing disengagement from mathematics from lower into higher grades, which was particularly evident in arithmetic lessons. Additionally, the findings demonstrated a decline in negative emotions in geometry lessons from lower into higher grades, whereas arithmetic lessons exhibited an opposite trend. Conversely, geometry lessons elicited a mixture of both positive and negative emotions which inclined from lower into higher grades. Even though the results are consistent with the literature in some respects, they present new information about how different mathematics lessons influence perceived emotional classroom climate, and their development over the course of primary school years. The results are discussed regarding their theoretical, practical, and methodological implications.