International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
this number varies. Typically these students haven't known eachother prior to that so we can say it is an
artificially created group. This group will spend several hours together every day over a long period of time in a
very close and direct contact. Therefore it is no surprise that the emotional responses that occur in these
relationships are extremely important for the functioning of the educational process. In practise they are usually
diagnosed through different sociometric techniques (Kolak, 2013) that help determine the student's status in the
class. Coie recognizes five categories when talking about status in the peer group. These are: the popular student,
the rejected student, the neglected student, the contraversial student and the avarage student (acc.to Klarin, 2006)
Other authors (MacDonald, 1991; Legault, 1993; Torrey, Wright, 1996; Kolak, 2010) single out four categories
with regard to the degree of preference or rejection of the student by others. The student with many negative
nominations is a rejected student. The student with a few positive and a few negative nominations is an isolated
student. The student with many positive and many negative nominations is said to be controversial. The student
with many positive nominations is called star student. The status of the student in a particular class greatly
influences the emotional responses of that student during the teaching process. According to the cognitivedevelopmental
approach peers are an important motivator in the educational process. Piaget and Kohlberg point
out that the ability of accepting others' opinions comes out of the cognitive conflict with one's peers (Vizek-
Vidovic, 2003) while Vigotski's theory stresses the educational influence of the more competent peers. Scholars
who support the cognitive-developmental theories claim that the students' perception of peers shapes their
behaviour towards them. According to the social learning theory peers are a behavioral model, they reward or
sanction certain actions and represent one of the criteria of self efficacy (Vasta, Heith, Miller, 2005). Most
important negative emotional responses among peers to be considered in the teaching process are the emotional
response of unacceptance, rejection, inferiority and worthlessness. Unacceptance and rejection are normal parts
of the emotional response spectrum (Milivojevic, 2007.) and it is normal to go through them. In the emotional
responses among peers the problem arises if the response of rejection and unacceptance lead to feelings of
inferiority and worthlessness. There are cases of rejection of one student by another student or group of other
students that include ignoring and humiliation. The presence of dehumanizing labeling deeply affects the self
image of the student. The student feels inferior because he is convinced he does not have the necessary qualities
present in other peers. Further on there is a negative response of a higher degree – the feeling of worthlessness.
The student feels worthless when he percives he has no qualities necessary to belong to the peer group. The
emotional response of trust or doubt are also present among peers. When the student percives that others'
intentions are good, that they are capable and responsible the student has the emotional response of trust. When
he sees others as mean, incompetent and unreliable, he feels suspicion. Both trust and suspicion help the student
to find his place inside the class.
Conclusion
The growing importance of emotional responses in the school system has followed many researches and
discoveries of neuroscience. Didactics and pedagogy have come to recognize these factors in shaping teaching
scenarios. Since emotions are at the root of all human behaviour it is quite unusual that they are coming at the
focus of educational studies only recently. Understanding the emotional responses will help dealing with
different types of problems in the learning process. There are many indicators that show close relation between
students' emotional responses and their academic achievement. This is the field of "emotional pedagogy" which
promotes the approach based on studying emotional responses since they procede the learning process.
This paper dealt with those emotional responses that are related to the teaching process. The greatest
challange in this segment is the feeling of boredom as a negative emotional response that affects the dinamics of
the teaching process. Since we cannot protect the teaching process from the negative emotional responses it is
necessary to direct these towards their positive function as well as use evaluation and diagnostic tools for those
emotinal reactions that are indicative of more serious problems and hinder the learning process and the
development of a positive self- image.
References
Bognar, L. (2009.) Emocije u nastavi. http://ladislav-bognar.net/files/Emocije u nastavi 1.doc -b_0.pdf
Bognar, L; Dubovicki, S. (2012). Emocije u nastavi. Hrvatski časopis za odgoj i obrazovanje. Vol.14, No.1;
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Boler, M. (1999.)Feeling Power: Emotions in Education. New York: Routledge.
Burman, E. (2001.) Emotions in the Classroom and the Institutional Politics of Knowledge. Psychoanalytic
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