Work

Profiling sympathetic arousal in a physics course: How active are students?

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Low arousal states (especially boredom) have been shown to be more deleterious to learning than high arousal states, though the latter have received much more attention (e.g., test anxiety, confusion, and frustration). Aiming at profiling arousal in the classroom (how active students are) and examining how activation levels relate to achievement, we studied sympathetic arousal during two runs of an elective advanced physics course in a real classroom setting, including the course exam. Participants were high school students (N = 24) who were randomly selected from the course population. Arousal was indexed from electrodermal activity, measured unobtrusively via the Empatica E4 wristband. Low arousal was the level with the highest incidence (60% of the lesson on average) and longest persistence, lasting on average three times longer than medium arousal and two times longer than high arousal level occurrences. During the course exam, arousal was positively and highly correlated (r = .66) with achievement as measured by the students' grades. Implications for a need to focus more on addressing low arousal states in learning are discussed, together with potential applications for biofeedback, teacher intervention, and instructional design.

Source: Journal of Computer Assisted Learning

DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12271

Authors: H.J. Pijeira-Díaz, H. Drachsler, P.A. Kirschner, S. Järvelä

Institutions: University of Oulu, Goethe University Frankfurt, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Open University of the Netherlands

Language: English

Topic: Education, Achievement, and Giftedness

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: Academy of Finland