Students’ Emotions in the Achievement Context of 4th Grade

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Sonja Ertl; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Nett
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 557577685

The present study aims to investigate students’ emotional experiences and changes throughout grade 4 before transitioning to secondary school. More precisely, the present study aims to identify individual and situational characteristics that have a significant impact on students’ emotional experiences during the final year of elementary school.According to the Control-Value Theory, both individual factors (e.g., self-concept, interest) and situational factors (e.g., tests or teachers’ feedback) are crucial for the experience of control and value appraisals, and thus have an impact on students’ emotional experiences in achievement settings. Therefore, individual as well as situational antecedents are crucial for the formation and intraindividual changes of emotional experiences in learning and achievement settings. These relations and processes have been empirically elaborated in settings of secondary and tertiary education. However, empirical research on inter- and intraindividual changes in emotional experiences, their antecedents, and outcomes in the setting of elementary education remains unexplored.In particular, we are not aware of any studies that focus on the formation and changes of emotional experiences in the final school year before transitioning to secondary school. The proposed project addresses this gap and specifically investigates which individual and situational factors play a role.The study is based on a longitudinal design with five measurement points from the end of 3rd grade to the end of 4th grade, supplemented by two experience-sampling bursts. In the longitudinal survey, students are asked about their emotional experiences, self-concept, and value appraisals in subjects relevant to the transition to secondary school (German, Mathematics, and Science). Individual characteristics, such as socioeconomic and migration background, are assessed via parents or guardians, and current performance in the mentioned subjects is assessed via teachers. Situational characteristics are considered through the measurement points (e.g., receiving the transition report) and teachers' assessments.The two experience-sampling bursts aim to assess students' emotional experiences as well as the situational antecedents within the classroom of the three mentioned main subjects. Using a short questionnaire, students are asked multiple times during class over 10 days about their current emotional experiences and their control and value appraisals. Teachers provide corresponding information about the current lessons (e.g., content). To account for both the quantification of changes and reciprocal relationships, latent neighbor change models and latent cross-lagged models are planned for the analysis of the longitudinal data. For the analysis of the experience-sampling data, autoregressive cross-lagged models and network analyses are planned to consider interindividual, intraindividual, and temporal transfer effects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants