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Measuring the impact of teachers’ emotions on student behavior and learning

A teacher's emotions, particularly negative ones, can have a profound impact on young students.
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A teacher's emotions, particularly negative ones, can have a profound impact on young students.

We often think about what teachers teach – the lessons and academic goals. However, new research from the University of Delaware suggests we should also pay close attention to how teachers feel.

The study, co-authored by UD Associate Research Professor Leigh McLean, looks at how a teacher’s emotions can ripple through the classroom, affecting the ways students engage, behave, and learn.

Delaware Public Media’s Kyle McKinnon is joined by McLean this week to discuss the study’s findings and what they tell us about the emotional dynamics of a classroom.

DPM's Kyle McKinnon discusses the impact of a teacher's emotions on the classroom with UD professor Leigh McLean

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 behavior 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.

And McLean says teachers also 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 at the ways students engage, behave and learn.

McLean says students will pick 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 teachers generally showed far more positive than negative emotions, but some teachers showed higher levels of negative emotions.

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Kyle McKinnon is the Senior Producer for The Green with a passion for storytelling and connecting with people.