Emotion Expression when Teaching with Creative Movement

Abstract

The study focuses on students’ emotion expression during geometry teaching including creative movement (experimental group or EG) and without it (control group or CG). The sample (N = 104) was made up of primary school (second-grade) students: 66 were assigned to the EG and 38 to the CG. Of these, 12 students from the EG and 8 from the CG were randomly selected for observation of emotion: type, intensity, triggering situation, and response of others. For the observed students, the intensity of emotion expression was also measured by the facial expression recognition software FaceReader. All of the students self-assessed their contentedness with the teaching. The students in the EG and the CG expressed various emotions, with joy being the most prevalent, followed by anger. The most frequent situations triggering joy were activities in the EG and the CG. The intensity of joy was higher in the EG than in the CG when assessed by observation, but there was no significant difference when assessed by FaceReader. The intensity of anger expression was at a similar level in both groups. Both students and teachers responded to students’ joy expression, but only the students responded to anger expression in the EG and the CG. The students in both groups expressed a high level of contentedness with the teaching.

Key words: creative movement; emotion expression; intensity of emotions; students; teaching method.