Key Findings

The key findings from the project included:

• The most frequently reported positive emotions were happiness, satisfaction and enthusiasm. The most frequently reported negative emotions were anger, disappointment and frustration. Negative emotions were more frequently associated with negative physiological effects such as bodily tension, which occasionally lasted for several hours. The most commonly reported triggers for both positive and negative emotions came from the teachers’ interactions with their students, and generally tertiary teachers responded to these experiences in cognitive and behavioural ways.
• All fourteen tertiary teachers talked about the importance of managing their emotions during their teaching. Their main reasons were to prevent negative effects of negative emotions on their teaching, on their students, on the student-teacher relationship and also on their internal states. The emotion most likely to be regulated was anger for which the teachers used mainly cognitive and behavioural methods to down-regulate. Some teachers also used methods to up-regulate their enthusiasm to encourage students. The majority of the tertiary teachers thought that positive emotions should not be regulated. The main reason given for positive emotion regulation was to achieve an optimal level of happiness so that students could concentrate on their learning.
• For the purposes of the present study, three commonly-used questionnaires well-validated to measure happiness, satisfaction, and positive and negative affect were employed. One of the main implications from the questionnaire results is the suggestion that perhaps higher levels of emotional intelligence and positive emotions were related to higher levels of subjective well-being among this group of participants.

Key Recommendations

The key implications for tertiary teachers and tertiary teaching from the project included:

Professionalism and commitment | Overall, the tertiary teachers’ experiences of, and their stated beliefs and understandings about, emotions in teaching and learning demonstrate their professionalism and commitment to quality learning experiences for their students. They reveal that these tertiary teachers expect a high level of emotional engagement from themselves.

Emotional intelligence | The emotional intelligence (EI) of tertiary teachers is a potentially significant characteristic. The tertiary teachers’ EI scores were related to higher levels of subjective well-being. Higher emotional regulation skills, which form part of EI, are related to job satisfaction in other teacher groups. This positive correlation needs to be considered for tertiary teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Emotional regulation skills | Tertiary teachers need to be able to regulate their own emotions in order to prevent emotional exhaustion, which is a predictor of burnout. Previous research has shown that teachers who have higher emotional regulation skills report fewer instances of burnout. Tertiary teachers might benefit from empirically proven emotional intelligence training workshops.

Emotional awareness | A number of tertiary teachers stated that they think it is good for student outcomes if teachers are aware of their own emotions. Reasons given included its usefulness in self-reflection and the importance of not bringing their own negative emotions into class. Modelling how to handle their emotions in classroom situations was also seen to be beneficial for positive student learning, 

Positive emotions | Most of the tertiary teachers expressed their belief that positive emotions did not have to be regulated because of the positive effects such emotions had on students and their learning. Of the few who thought that positive emotions should be regulated, their reasons included not having students “too silly-happy” and the tertiary teacher needing to keep on track in a humorous situation. The significant effect of happiness and other positive emotions as researched within the domain of Positive Psychology is an area that has been generally under-researched in education.

Future research | Given the findings of this pilot study, in conjunction with the recent New Zealand research from the perspective of student success in tertiary education, it can be argued that future research needs to focus on the ways in which tertiary teachers may enhance their emotional experience of teaching, for the best outcomes for students and for their individual wellbeing.