Emotional classroom climate from a psychological perspective

Abstract

Classroom climate is a rich and an important research concept due to the early discovery of a relationship between positive classroom climate and academic performance and motivation, engagement, participation, and attitude towards school and teaching. In this paper, I focus on the elements of the psychological dimension of emotional classroom climate and the kind of emotional classroom climate in Grade 3 (N = 25) and Grade 6 (N = 28) school mathematics in the context of geometry lessons by using participant-produced drawings. The students illustrated different elements of the psychological dimension of the emotional classroom climate through physical facial and body features as well as thoughts. Furthermore, the results showed that the emotional classroom climate in both grades was mainly positive, with a negative tendency in Grade 6. The results are discussed not only regarding the research goals, but also regarding their theoretical, practical, and methodological implications.