Teacher emotions and in-the-moment decision making in the secondary mathematics classroom

Abstract

Our study focuses on the interplay of two secondary school mathematics teachers’ emotions and decision-making in pivotal teaching moments. We highlight the interaction between teacher emotions and in-the-moment decision-making, and resources that coordinate this interplay, suggesting a theoretical and methodological way of addressing it. Our analyzed data comes from three teachers’ lessons and four semi-structured interviews. When analyzing pivotal moments where the teacher handles students’ errors, it appeared that teacher emotions and resources are interrelated elements of the decision-making. Findings show that: (1) teachers’ emotions, while handling students’ errors, are mostly negative, but differ in their kind and source; (2) the formation of teacher emotions and actions often seems to draw on the same resources (social-spatial, anticipatory-temporal, moral-ideological dimensions, and teacher’s responsibility about mathematics; (3)teachers’ actions, while handling students’ errors, differ in relation to the resources and the emotions that coordinate their formation.