Abstract
Over the past decade, the concept of self-regulated learning has broadened to include motivational, volitional, and emotional components next to (meta-)cognitive ones. In this article, we present a meta-emotion perspective as an essential component of a conceptual framework on self-regulation that fully acknowledges the role of emotions. Against this background, a study is presented that attempts to contribute to the clarification of the relevance and the functioning of students’ meta-emotional knowledge and emotional regulation skills in school-related mathematical activities. It investigates the coping strategies that 393 students of the second (age 14) and fourth (age 16) year of secondary school report to use to regulate their emotions in three different mathematical school settings (i.e., a mathematics test, a difficult mathematics homework, and a difficult mathematics lesson). More specifically, it aims (1) to document the nature and frequency of the reported coping strategies, and (2) to explore—for the three different mathematical school settings—relationships between these reported coping strategies and personal characteristics (i.e., students’ familiarity with the particular school settings, their track in secondary education, their achievement level, their age, and gender). The results indicate that students report to know and to make use of several coping strategies in school-related mathematical activities, and reveal that the use of these strategies is related to specific person-related characteristics. In conclusion, we elaborate on how schools and teachers can stimulate students to acquire appropriate strategies and skills to self-regulate their emotions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We choose to perform an exploratory analysis rather than a confirmatory analysis to be able to account for specific cultural characteristics related to the Flemish situation. After all, we had to make our own translation of the COPE questionnaire and to investigate its usefulness in the Flemish school context.
References
Ashton, P. T., & Gregoire-Gill, M. (2003). At the heart of teaching: The role of emotion in changing teachers’ beliefs. In J. Raths & A. McAninch (Eds.), Advances in teacher education (Vol. 6, pp. 99–121). Norwood: Ablex.
Boekaerts, M., & Niemivirta, M. (2000). Self-regulated learning: Finding a balance between learning goals and ego-protective goals. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 417–450). San Diego: Academic Press.
Boekaerts, M. (1993). Being concerned with well-being and with learning. Educational Psychologist, 28, 149–167.
Boekaerts, M. (2002). The on-line motivation questionnaire: A self-report instrument to assess students’ context sensitivity. In P. R. Pintrich & M. L. Maehr (Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement: New directions in measures and methods (Vol. 12, pp. 77–120). Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd.
Boekaerts, M. (2007). Understanding students’ affective processes in the classroom. In P. A. Schutz & R. Pekrun (Eds.), Emotion in education (pp. 37–56). Oxford: Elsevier.
Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of self-regulation. San Diego: Academic Press.
Brown, A. (1987). Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation and other more mysterious mechanisms. In F. E. Weinert & R. H. Kluwe (Eds.), Metacognition, motivation, and understanding (pp. 65–116). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carr, M., & Biddlecomb, B. (1998). Metacognition in mathematics from a constructivist perspective. In D. J. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), Metacognition in educational theory and practice (pp. 69–92). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2000). On the structure of behavioral self-regulation. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 41–84). San Diego: Academic Press.
Carver, C., Weintraub, J., & Scheier, M. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267–283.
Chapman, P. L., & Mullis, R. L. (1999). Adolescent coping strategies and self-esteem. Child Study Journal, 29(1), 69–77.
Cobb, P. (1986). Contexts, goals, beliefs, and learning mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 6(2), 2–9.
De Corte, E., Greer, B., & Verschaffel, L. (1996). Mathematics teaching and learning. In D. C. Berliner & R. Calfee (Eds.), The handbook of educational psychology (pp. 491–549). New York: Macmillan.
De Corte, E., Mason, L., Depaepe, F., & Verschaffel, L. (2011). Self-regulation of mathematical knowledge and skills. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance (pp. 155–172). New York: Routledge.
De Corte, E., Verschaffel, L., & Op ’t Eynde, P. (2000). Self-regulation: A characteristic and a goal of mathematics education. In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation (pp. 687–726). San Diego: Academic Press.
Goldin, G. A. (2002). Affect, meta-affect, and mathematical belief structures. In G. C. Leder, E. Pehkonen, & G. Törner (Eds.), Beliefs: A hidden variable in mathematics education (pp. 59–72). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotional philosophy and the emotional life of families. Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 243–268.
Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1997). Introduction to the concept of meta-emotion. In J. M. Gottman, L. F. Katz, & C. Hooven (Eds.), Meta-emotion. How families communicate emotionally (pp. 3–8). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gumora, G., & Arsenio, W. F. (2002). Emotionality, emotional regulation, and school performance in middle school children. Journal of School Psychology, 40, 395–413.
Hooven, C., Gottman, J. M., & Katz, L. F. (1995). Parental meta-emotion structure predicts family and child outcomes. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 229–264.
Isen, A. M. (2004). Some perspectives on positive feelings and emotions: Positive affect facilitates thinking and problem solving. In A. S. R. Manstead, N. Frijda, & A. Fischer (Eds.), Feelings and emotions: The Amsterdam Symposium (pp. 263–281). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Linnenbrink, E. A. (2007). The role of affect in student learning: A multi-dimensional approach to considering the interaction of affect, motivation, and engagement. In P. Schutz & R. Pekrun (Eds.), Emotions in education (pp. 107–124). Oxford: Elsevier.
Mascolo, M. F., Harkins, D., & Harakal, T. (2000). The dynamic construction of emotions: Varieties of anger. In M. D. Lewis & I. Granic (Eds.), Emotion, development, and self-organization: Dynamic systems approaches to emotional development (pp. 125–152). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McLeod, D. B. (1992). Research on affect in mathematics education: A reconceptualization. In D. A. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning: A project of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (pp. 575–596). New York: Macmillan.
Meyer, D. K., & Turner, J. C. (2002). Discovering emotion in classroom motivation research. Educational Psychologist, 37, 107–114.
O’Donnell, A. M., & Levin, J. R. (2001). Educational psychology’s healthy growing pains. Educational Psychologist, 36, 73–82.
Op ’t Eynde, P., De Corte, E., & Verschaffel, L. (2007). Students’ emotions: A key component of self-regulated learning? In P. A. Schutz & R. Pekrun (Eds.), Emotion in education (pp. 185–204). Oxford: Elsevier.
Op ’t Eynde, P., & Turner, J. E. (2006). Focusing on the complexity of emotion-motivation issues in academic learning: A dynamical, component systems approach. Educational Psychology Review, 18, 361–376.
Pekrun, R. (2000). A social-cognitive, control-value theory of achievement emotions. In J. Heckhausen (Ed.), Motivational psychology of human development (pp. 143–163). Oxford: Elsevier.
Pekrun, R. (2001). Test anxiety and academic achievement. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 15610–15614). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated learning and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational Psychologist, 37, 91–105.
Pintrich, P. R., Marx, R. W., & Boyle, A. (1993). Beyond cold conceptual change: Motivational beliefs and classroom contextual factors in the process of conceptual change. Review of Educational Research, 63, 167–199.
Porges, S. W. (1984). Heart rate oscillation: An index of neural mediation. In M. G. H. Coles, J. R. Jennings, & J. A. Stern (Eds.), Psychophysiological perspectives: Festschrift for Beatrice and John Lacey (pp. 229–241). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Rijavec, M., & Brdar, I. (2002). Coping with school failure and self-regulated learning. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 17, 177–194.
Scherer, K. R. (2004). Feelings integrate the central representation of appraisal-driven response organization in emotion. In A. S. R. Manstead, N. Frijda, & A. Fischer (Eds.), Feelings and emotions: The Amsterdam symposium (pp. 136–157). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schoenfeld, A. (1992). Learning to think mathematically: Problem solving, metacognition, and sense making in mathematics. In D. A. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 334–370). New York: Macmillan.
Schraw, G. (2001). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. In H. J. Hartman (Ed.), Metacognition in learning and instruction: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 3–16). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Schutz, P. A., & Davis, H. A. (2000). Emotions and self-regulation during test taking. Educational Psychologist, 35, 243–256.
Schutz, P. A., & Pekrun, R. (2007). Emotion in education. Oxford: Elsevier Inc.
Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 216–269.
Snow, R. E., Corno, L., & Jackson III, D. (1996). Individual differences in affective and conative functions. In D. C. Berliner & R. C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 243–310). New York: Macmillan.
Steward, R. J., Steward, A. D., & Blair, J. (2002, April). School attendance revisited: A study of urban African American students’ GPA and coping strategies. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, East Lansing.
Tamres, L. K., Janicki, D., & Helgeson, V. S. (2002). Sex differences in coping behavior: A meta-analytical review and an examination of relative coping. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 2–30.
Vermunt, J. D. (1996). Metacognitive, cognitive and affective aspects of learning styles and strategies: A phenomenographic analysis. Higher Education, 31, 25–50.
Wolters, C. A., & Pintrich, P. R. (2001). Contextual differences in student motivation and self-regulated learning in mathematics, English, and social studies classrooms. In H. J. Hartman (Ed.), Metacognition in learning and instruction: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 103–124). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2001). Theories of self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview and analysis. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretical perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 1–37). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. H. (Eds.). (1989). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Springer.
Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. H. (Eds.). (2001). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretical perspectives (2nd ed.). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Acknowledgments
The authors like to thank Inge Mercken for her help in collecting and analyzing the data of the study reported in this article. This research was partially supported by Grant GOA 2006/01 “Developing adaptive expertise in mathematics education” from the Research Fund K. U. Leuven, Belgium.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
De Corte, E., Depaepe, F., Op ’t Eynde, P. et al. Students’ self-regulation of emotions in mathematics: an analysis of meta-emotional knowledge and skills. ZDM Mathematics Education 43, 483–495 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-011-0333-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-011-0333-6