Clarifying the Relation Between Epistemic Emotions and Learning by Using Experience Sampling Method and Pre-posttest Design

Abstract

Epistemic emotions (surprise, curiosity, enjoyment, confusion, anxiety, frustration and boredom) have an object focus on knowledge or knowledge construction and are thus hypothesized to affect learning outcomes. In the context of upper secondary school science, the present study clarifies this relation by examining the students’ pre- and posttest performance (n = 148 students) and their experiences of situational epistemic emotions (n = 1801 experience sampling method observations). As expected, epistemic emotions correlated with both pre- and posttest performance: curiosity and enjoyment correlated positively, and frustration and boredom correlated negatively with the performance. However, based on structural equation modeling, after controlling for the pretest performance, only boredom was found to have a significant negative effect on posttest performance. The findings underline the complexity of the interplay between emotions and learning. Thus, the state versus trait nature of epistemic emotions, and the implications for research and practice are being discussed.