Teacher's anger expressionin a classroom and educational and social-emotional aspects of teaching

Teachers experience and express different emotions in the classroom. Theoretical and empirical findings of research in Slovenia and elsewhere show that teachers’ emotions in the classroom have a significant impact on learners’ motivation for learning, the quality of their relations and the classroom climate. Anger is among the most common emotions that teachers experience and express in relation to pupils. Teachers’ anger is most often triggered by pupils’ behavior that teachers consider inappropriate. We have found no study in the literature that would examine the correlations between how teachers of fourth and fifth grades of nine-year elementary school programs express anger and the pedagogical, as well as social and emotional aspects of teaching. Based on this, we decided to study the subject, both in terms of teachers’ self-perception and the perception by pupils. The empirical research included 100 teachers of 4th and 5th grades from different primary schools in Slovenia and 1552 of their pupils. Data were collected using a number of own questionnaires. The survey covered the views of both teachers and pupils on teachers’ anger, which factors and situations cause anger among teachers, how teachers express anger in the classroom, what teachers want to achieve with different ways of expressing anger with respect to pupils, and how all these variables relate to different pedagogical, as well as social and emotional aspects of teaching. The results of the survey show that teachers agree most strongly that pupils learn from them how to express anger, while pupils agree the most that a teacher should be angry only when he or she has a valid reason. Both teachers and their pupils perceive that on average teachers rarely get angry due to pupils’ inappropriate behavior. Pupils also believe that sometimes although rarely teachers get angry due to factors and situations resulting from their own behavior and personality, while teachers, on average, think they never get angry because of their own traits. Both teachers and pupils said teachers express anger in an assertive manner, for example clearly defining the reasons for their anger, telling pupils how they feel, etc. Moreover, both consider this type of anger to be present in almost every class session. On the other hand, anger is, on average, rarely expressed in an aggressive manner, i.e. by yelling angrily, threatening, or giving angry looks. According to pupils, teachers express anger in order to achieve a change in pupils’ behavior. Teachers state that, in addition to changing pupils’ behavior, their different approaches in expressing anger are also aimed at more complex changes, such as encouraging pupils’ awareness, understanding and getting a sense of a concrete situation. The less teachers believe that expressing anger in front of pupils is inappropriate, that they need to justify their anger to pupils, or that their anger is a bad influence, the more they think they do things such as lauding and encouraging their pupils, clearly presenting grading criteria, including pupils’ ideas in class work, etc. The more teachers notice their own anger for different reasons (e.g. pupils quarreling, their own lack of preparation for class), the fewer positive aspects of how they conduct classes they see (e.g. teaching in a way that is easy to understand, allowing the chance to give additional explanations). The results of this empirical study further indicate that teachers who said they more commonly express their anger in an assertive way also see the positive aspects of their teaching more often. On the other hand, the teachers who more often express anger in an aggressive way also found more negative aspects in their teaching (e.g. they give pupils strict warnings more often, they manage all the work in class, or they remind pupils of every detail). Research findings indicate that professional reflection can be an effective tool in transforming teacher’s views on anger. Teachers can achieve better anger management above all with a high level of emotional self-control and by changing the way they respond to situations that make them angry. In educational institutions, it would be reasonable to introduce special training for students and in-service teachers to acquire and develop skills for expressing anger in an assertive manner, based on critical (self)reflection of inappropriate responses in such situations