Teachers’ Emotional and Cognitive Responses to Students’ Mathematical Errors in Middle School

This study investigates teachers’ emotional and cognitive responses to students’ mathematical errors at the middle school level (Grades VI–VIII). Based on the view that errors are important for learning, the research examines how teachers understand students' errors and how these influence their instructional decisions and classroom interactions. A qualitative method was used that involves the process of understanding students' written responses to mathematical tasks with self-report interviews with mathematics teachers. The data collected from students have been used to find the common mistakes and reasons behind those mistakes, while the interviews of teachers provided a viewpoint into teachers' reactions, such as patience, empathy, and frustration, and their strategies to reduce the frequency of these mistakes. The findings illustrate that students often make mistakes related to place value, fraction operations, algebraic expressions, and order of operations because they are following rules blindly rather than understanding what the logic is behind them. Teachers generally take these errors as opportunities, identify the difficulties that students have, and make changes in their teaching methods. Yet, their emotional responses affect how they participate and learn. This study highlights the importance of emotional awareness brought together with pedagogical content knowledge to create supportive learning environments that encourage error-based learning. It concludes that to improve students' mathematical understanding and confidence, emotional balance and analytical reasoning are necessarily needed.