International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
apparent agitation. This can be recognized by unnecessary actions and behaviour: rocking on a chair, tapping
fingers, scribbling, biting fingernails...The purpose of agitation is wasting away of the emotional tension caused
by boredom. This often interrupts the teaching process and creates a new problem of indiscipline. Although
boredom is predominant in adolescence it is present in all phases and periods of education.
Students' emotional responses in the teaching process
When defining emotions Oatley and Jenkins (2003) stress the process of evaluation and consider the category
of awareness as irrelevant. They say emotion is "usually caused by intentional or spontanious evaluation of an
event related to an important goal; it is felt as positive when the objective is being realised and negative when its
realisation is obstructed" (Oatley, Jenkins, 2003:93) The word emotion comes from the Latin verb motere , to
move. Emotion has the word motion inside it. Emotions drive us to certain actions and at the heart of emotion is
the ability to act. Hence our primary emotions (fear,anger, sadness, disgust, contempt, surprise, joy) are
important for survival. Each of these emotions has its characteristics and can be found in all cultures regardless
of race, language or religion.
For example, fear is caused by a potential danger and it drives us to escape; anger drives us to attack when
there's an obstacle on the way to realisation of our goals. Sadness is related to loss and it causes withdrawal, and
the feeling of disgust causes rejection. Surprise is activated in an unexpected situation and joy occurs in
desirable situations and causes bonding. The following Table 1 gives an outline of these emotional responses
regarding teaching context and school system and it is focused on the positive aspects of students' negative
emotional responses.
Table 1: Positive function of students' negative response (Kolak, 2013)
Emotion Teaching situation Students' positive action
Concern
Sadness
Anger
Guilt
Jitters
Envy
Student is concerned because he/she
thinks he /she did poorly at the
exam.
Student is sad because he/she cannot
enroll in the school of choice due to
poor exam results.
Student is angry with a classmate
who interrupted him during exam.
The student didn't complete his part
of the project so the whole team got
a lower grade.
Student has jitters before a public
performance.
Student wants to have the abilities
and talents like his classmates, eg. in
sports.
This mobilizes the student to revise the
material covered in the exam and to
practise more. The student finds the best
solution in the present for the problems
that may occur in future.
Student makes reconstruction of value
system. He distances himself from the
imagined desire and affirms the real
possibilities. He finds a school that suits
the situation.
The goal of anger is to drive the other
person to change his behaviour. The
student shows the sense of self esteem
through anger.
The discomfort of the feeling of guilt
drives the student to change the
behaviour that caused it. He wants to
recompensate, apologizes and accepts
his responsibility.
This drives the student to thorough
preparations and consultations .
Envy helps the student to identify his
own desire. He joins a sport activity in
free time.
Oatley and Jenkins (2003) see emotions as central to human life and as structures that " govern our lives,
especially our relationships with others" (Oatley and Jenkins, 2003:124) Hence it is important what are students'
emotional responses towards school and the teaching process because this will influence their behaviour. Magda
Arnold has introduced the term of evaluation of significance as key factor in studying the shaping of emotions
and she based it on Aristotle's theory that emotions are based on evaluation of events in view of their importance
within personal and interpersonal life (Jenkins, Oatley and Stein, 1998). Frijda (according to Oatley and Jenkins)
stresses the necessary condition in determening the occurance of emotions to be the change in attitude towards
action. Many authors (Goleman,1997; Chabot and Chabot, 2009) agree that each emotion suposes inclination
towards action. Campos and assistants (according to Oatley and Jenkins,2003) define emotions as processes
271