A recent University of Delaware study looks at how a teacher’s emotions can affect students in the classroom.
While the focus on teachers is typically on the lessons they teach students, this UD study shows it should also be on what they’re feeling.
People, especially children, learn by watching and paying attention to the social and behavioral clues of people in their environment, and children always look for the most knowledgeable person in their environment.
In the classroom, that’s their teacher, who delivers important social and behavioral cues.
According to UD Associate Research Professor Leigh McLean, the children look at the teacher’s tone of voice, clues about whether they’re safe or okay, and whether they can learn.
McLean adds that teachers need a good environment to help them do their job.
"My big message right now is it's not yoga Friday, it's not mindfulness and meditation for that teacher just by itself," said McLean. "These issues really need to be addressed systemically, so that we can create a working scenario where teachers are more likely to thrive and experience those wonderful positive emotions and be able to make really good instructional decisions and not be burned out and things like that."
McLean co-authored this UD study that looks at how a teacher’s emotions can affect the classroom in the ways students engage, behave, and learn.
She says students will pick up on any negative vibes from teachers.
"These more unique but more extreme negative emotions really are picked up on and transmitted to students. So they do notice, they do internalize, and it does take away from the learning opportunity," said McLean.
The study also found that teachers generally showed far more positive emotions, but some teachers showed higher levels of negative emotions.
