Collective emotional atmosphere in mathematics lesson based on finnish fifth graders’ drawings

Abstract

The aim of this study, based on pupils’ drawings, is to find out what kind of collective emotional atmosphere dominates in fifth-graders’ mathematics lessons. Pupils’ (N = 136) drawings were analyzed using a holistic evaluation of emotional atmosphere during mathematics lesson. Even though the collective emotional atmosphere in mathematics lesson is positive in the total data, there are large differences among the different classrooms. In most of the classrooms the emotional atmosphere could be described more or less as ambivalent (there are both positive and negative facial or other expressions). In two classrooms the emotional atmosphere could be described as positive and only in one as neutral. The differences between the classrooms are thus large. Based on our data, it can be said that asking pupils to do drawings is a good and many-sided method to collect data about the collective emotional atmosphere of a teaching group.