Researchers from The University of Queensland’s Learning Lab and School of Education have developed a real-time measure to investigate emotional experiences and causes for those emotions in the classroom.
Dr Amanda Bourgeois, Professor Annemaree Carroll, and Dr Julie Bower teamed up to develop the S2* Emotion Application tool to understand how disadvantaged Australian teenagers feel in the classroom in a recently published journal article with Frontiers in Education.
Three phases were conducted to develop the S2* emotion application: (1) qualitative data collection to understand emotional experiences in the classroom, (2) prototype development using collected data and literature, and (3) using S2* emotion application in the classroom to validate the tool.
The researchers found that boredom was the most frequently reported emotion, and peers were the most common cause of emotions. The most frequent reports of emotions and causes for that emotion were:
- boredom caused by schoolwork;
- happiness caused by peers;
- happiness caused by self; and
- boredom caused by teacher.
The S2* emotion application can be used to conduct further studies on emotional experiences in real-time and build on theoretical frameworks to provide the necessary skills and resources to support educators.
