Exploring the entanglement of personal epistemologies and emotions in students’ thinking

Evidence from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience suggests that cognition and emotions are coupled. Education researchers have also documented correlations between emotions (such as joy, anxiety, fear, curiosity, boredom) and academic performance. Nonetheless, most research on students’ reasoning and conceptual change within the learning sciences and physics and science education research has not attended to the role of learners’ emotions in describing or modeling the fine timescale dynamics of their conceptual reasoning. The few studies that integrate emotions into models of learners’ cognition have mostly done so at a coarse grain size. In this study, toward the long-term goal of incorporating emotions into models of in-the-moment cognitive dynamics, we present a case study of Judy, an undergraduate electrical engineering and physics major. We show that shifts in the intensity of a fine-grained aspect of Judy’s emotions, her annoyance at conceptual homework problems, co-occur with shifts in her epistemological stance toward differentiating knowledge about and the practical utility of real circuits and idealized circuit models. We then argue for the plausibility of a cognitive model in which Judy’s emotions and epistemological stances mutually affect each other. We end with discussions on how models of learners’ cognition that incorporate their emotions are generative for instructional purposes and research on learning.

Figure 1

The panels show Judy’s facial expressions in episode 1. The first and third panel depict her negative emotions in facial expressions as she talks about theoretical methods and physical aspects. The second panel shows contrasting facial expressions during this episode.

Figure 2

Visual representation of the model for episode 1. Judy (marked as J) and Brian (marked as B) are shown as co-supporting the aspects of the interview conversation that we model labeled as real ideal gulf, limited utility, dissatisfaction, and annoyance. Judy’s trajectory through time (thick black line going through “Judy”) is shown as moving through past experiences in the Basic Circuits course, through the present time of the interview, into the projected future (represented by dotted black line) of participating in community of professional engineers. It is highlighted (via thin connecting lines between the bubbles corresponding to the course, the interview, and projected professional engineering future) that in the interview, the course is positioned as having a focus on idealized models and professional engineers as being focused on real circuits. Real ideal gulf here refers to the epistemological stance of separation between real circuits and idealized models. Limited utility refers to the sense that idealized models are of limited utility to professional engineers in analyzing real circuits. Dissatisfaction refers to the sense of dissatisfaction at the circuits courses’ emphasis on idealized models. And annoyance refers to the negative emotions Judy expresses when talking about idealized models.

Figure 3

The panel shows the negative emotion in Judy’s facial expressions in episode 2 as she says “physically happening in a circuit.”

Figure 4

The panels show the range of Judy’s facial expressions in episode 2 as she discusses the conceptual questions being annoying.

Figure 5

The prompt given to Judy for the extended resistor problem.

Figure 6

Judy displays positive emotions in facial expressions as she works on the extended resistor problem.

Figure 7

Judy displays positive emotion in facial expressions after successfully solving the conceptual problem on waveforms and their RMS voltage.

Figure 8

Visual representation of the analysis of episode 3. Judy (marked as J) and Brian (marked as B) are shown as co-supporting the aspects of the interview conversation that we model labeled as “Math and physics resources,” “Idealized models useful,” “Positive emotions,” and “Integrated reasoning.” Judy’s trajectory through time (thick black line going through Judy) is shown as moving through past experiences in the Basic Circuits course, through the present time of the interview, into the projected future (represented by dotted black line) of participating in community of professional engineers. Math and physics resources here refers to the conceptual knowledge elements that Judy is drawing on in order to solve problems. Integrated reasoning refers to the epistemological behavior where idealized models and conceptual reasoning are integrated in her problem solving. Idealized models useful refers to the epistemological stance that idealized models are useful. That the elements modeling in the “interview” space have links to past course experiences and the projected future as a professional engineer is highlighted via thin connecting lines between the bubbles.

Figure 9

Circuit for sample problem 2.

Figure 10

Circuit for sample problem 3.

Figure 11

Circuit for Appendix pp2, item 9.

Figure 12

Circuit for Appendix pp2, item 10.

Figure 13

Circuit for Appendix pp2, item 11.