Abstract
Understanding the interrelations among students’ cognitive, emotional, motivational, and volitional processes is an emergening focus in educational psychology. A dynamical, component systems theory of emotions is presented as a promising framework to further unravel these complex interrelations. This framework considers emotions to be a process that is composed of cognitive, neurophysiological, motor expression, and motivational processes—as well as feelings—that mutually regulate each other over time and within a particular context. This comprehensive view of emotions provides a more complete understanding of the social and dynamical nature of emotions and the integration of emotions within learning processes. Using a dynamical, component systems view of emotional processes, interrelated with learning processes, involves a shift in research methodologies and instruments to adequately investigate the role(s) of emotions within learning contexts. But more importantly, it may provide a powerful framework that can clearly show teachers and parents the role(s) that emotions play in students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The term “aptitudes” is used here as a general term that refers to individual difference constructs that are respectively cognitive, conative, or affective in nature and in interaction with the context determine students’ problem-solving behaviour (see e.g., aptitude-treatment interaction, Snow et al., 1996).
References
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, Vol. 12, New directions in measures and methods (pp. 77–120). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Cobb, P., & Bowers, J. (1999). Cognitive and situated learning: Perspectives in theory and practice. Educational Researcher, 28(2), 4–15.
Cobb, P., Yackel, E., & Wood, T. (1989). Young children’s emotional acts while engaged in mathematical problem solving. In D. B. McLeod, & V. M. Adams (Eds.), Affect and mathematical problem solving: A new perspective. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer.
Davidson, R. J., Scherer, K. R., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2003). (Eds.). Handbook of affective sciences. New York: Oxford University Press.
DeBellis, V. A. (1996). Interactions between affect and cognition during mathematical problem solving: A two year case study of four elementary school children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University: (University Microfilms No. 96-30716).
Eccles J. (1983). Expectancies, values and academic behaviors. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motives (pp. 75–146). San Francisco: Freeman.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Scherer, K. R. (2003). Appraisal processes in emotion. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 572–595). New York: Oxford University Press.
English, H. B., & English, A. C. (1958). A comprehensive dictionary of psychological and psychoanalytic terms. New York: Longman’s Green.
Greeno, J. G., Collins, A. M., & Resnick, L. B. (1996). Cognition and learning. In D. C. Berliner, & R. C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 15–46). New York: Macmillan.
Hilgard, E. R. (1980). The trilogy of mind: Cognition, affection, and conation. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences, 16, 107–117.
Isoda, M., & Nakagoshi, A. (2000). A case study of student emotional change using changing heart rate in problem posing and solving Japanese classroom in mathematics. In T. Nakahara, & M. Koyama (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th conference of the international group for the psychology of mathematics education (pp. 387–394). Hiroshima: Hiroshima University.
Kelso, J. A. (1995). Dynamic patterns: The self-organization of brain and behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kugler, P. N., & Turvey, M. T. (1987). Information, natural law and the self-assembly of rhythmic movement. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Leder, G. C. (1999). Measuring mathematical beliefs and their impact on the learning of mathematics: A new approach. In E. Pehkonen, & G. Törner (Eds.), Mathematical beliefs and their impact on teaching and learning of mathematics; Proceedings of the workshop in Oberwolfach (pp. 57–65). Duisburg: Gerhard Mercator Universität Duisburg.
Lewis, M. D., (2000). Emotional self-organization at three time scales. In M. D. Lewis, & I. Granic (Eds.). Emotion, development, and self-organization: Dynamic systems approaches to emotional development (pp. 37–69). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, M.D., & Granic, I. (2000). (Eds.), Emotion, development, and self-organization: Dynamic systems approaches to emotional development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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, UK: 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.
Op ’t Eynde, P., De Corte, E., & Verschaffel, L. (2001). “What to learn from what we feel?”: The role of students’ emotions in the mathematics classroom. In S. Volet, & S. Järvelä (Eds.), Motivation in learning contexts: Theoretical and methodological implications (pp. 149–167). A volume in the EARLI/Pergamon “Advances in Learning and Instruction” series.
Op ‘t Eynde, P., De Corte, E., & Verschaffel, L. (2002). Framing students’ mathematics-related beliefs: A quest for conceptual clarity and a comprehensive categorization. In G.C. Leder, E. Pehkonen, & G. Törner (Eds.), Beliefs: A hidden variable in mathematics education? (pp. 13–37). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Op ‘t Eynde, P., De Corte, E., & Verschaffel, L. (in press a). “Accepting emotional complexity”: A socio-constructivist perspective on the role of emotions in the mathematics classroom. Educational Studies in Mathematics.
Op ‘t Eynde, P., De Corte, E., & Verschaffel, L. (in press b). Students’ emotions: A key-component of self-regulated learning? In P. A. Schutz & R. Pekrun (Eds.), Emotions in education. New York: Elsevier.
Op ’t Eynde, P. & Hannula, M. (in press). The case of Frank. Educational studies in Mathematics.
Panksepp, J. (2004). Basic affect and the instinctual emotional systems of the brain: The primordial sources of sadness, joy, and seeking. In A. S. R. Manstead, N. Frijda, & A. Fischer (Eds), Feelings and emotions: The Amsterdam Symposium (pp. 174–193). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Paris, S. G., & Turner, J. C. (1994). Situated motivation. In P. R. Pintrich, D. R. Brown, & C. E. Weinstein (Eds.), Student motivation, cognition, and learning: Essays in honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie (pp. 213–238). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Pekrun, R. (1993). Facets of adolescents’ academic motivation: A longitudinal expectancy-value approach. In M. Maehr & P. Pintrich (Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement: Motivation and adolescent development (Vol. 8, pp. 139–190). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
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, England: 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(2), 91–105.
Pintrich, P. (1988). A process-oriented view of student motivation and cognitions. In J. S. Stark & L. A. Mets (Eds.) Improving teaching and learning through research (Vol. 57, pp. 65–80). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pintrich, P. (1989). The dynamic interplay of student motivation and cognition in the college classroom. In M. Maehr, & C. Ames, (Eds.) Advances in motivation and achievement: Motivation enhancing environments (Vol. 6, pp. 117–160). Connecticut: JAI.
Prawat, R. S., & Anderson, A. L. H. (1994). The affective experiences of children during mathematics. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 13, 201–222.
Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. del Rio, & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139–164). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Scherer, K. R. (2000). Emotions as episodes of subsystem synchronization driven by nonlinear appraisal processes. In M.D. Lewis, & I. Granic (Eds.), Emotion, development, and self-organization: Dynamic systems approaches to emotional development (pp. 70–99). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Scherer, K. R., & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1986). Emotional experiences in everyday life: A survey approach. Motivation and Emotion, 10, 295–314.
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.
Solomon, R. (1976). The passions. New York: Anchor/Doubleday.
Turner, J. C., & Meyer, D. K. (1999). Integrating classroom context into motivation theory and research: Rationales, methods, and implications. In T. C. Urdan (Ed.), Advances in motivation and achievement, Vol 11. The role of context (pp. 87–121). Stamford, Connecticut: JAI.
Turner, J. E., Husman, J., & Schallert, D. L. (2002). The importance of students’ goals in their emotional experience of academic failure: Investigating the precursors and consequences of shame. [Special Issue: Emotions in Education]. Educational Psychologist, 37(2), 79–89.
Turner, J. E. & Schallert, D. (2001). Expectancy–value relationships of shame reactions and shame resiliency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 320–329.
Turner, J. E. & Waugh, R. M. (2003, April). An ideographic investigation of students’ learning processes throughout a semester from an emergent, dynamical systems perspective. In P. Schutz & J. E. Turner (Co-chairs), The dynamic interplay of students’ emotions, motivation, and self-regulation within classroom contexts. Symposium conducted at the American Educational Research Association National Conference, Chicago, Illinois.
Turner, J. E. & Waugh, R. M. (in press). A dynamical systems perspective regarding students’ learning processes: Shame reactions and emergent self-organizations. In P. A. Schutz & R. Pekrun (Eds.), Emotions in education. New York: Elsevier.
Volet, S. (2001). Understanding learning and motivation in context: A multi-dimensional and multi-level cognitive–situative perspective. In S. Volet, & S. Järvelä (Eds.), Motivation in learning contexts: Theoretical and methodological implications (pp. 57–82). A volume in the EARLI/Pergamon “Advances in Learning and Instruction” series.
Waugh, R. M. (2002). A Grounded Theory Investigation of Dyadic Interactional Harmony and Discord: Development of a Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory and Process-Model. Unpublished dissertation.
Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 68–81.
Yackel, E., & Cobb, P. (1996). Sociomathematical norms, argumentation, and autonomy in mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 27, 458–477.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Eynde, P.O., Turner, J.E. Focusing on the Complexity of Emotion Issues in Academic Learning: A Dynamical Component Systems Approach. Educ Psychol Rev 18, 361–376 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-006-9031-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-006-9031-2