The Accuracy of the Teachers Judgments of Elementary School Students Classroom Engagement and Achievement Emotions

The classroom engagement and achievement emotions of elementary school students are closely related to the learning process employed and the degree of achievement reached. If teachers are able to accurately judge their students’ engagement and emotions during class, they can give timely feedback during the class and determine the appropriate content level and the optimal teaching approach for future classes. Therefore, the accurate monitoring and assessment of students’ classroom engagement and achievement emotions are crucial for teachers. In this study, we examined how accurately teachers were able to judge their students’ classroom engagement and achievement emotions. To do so, we collected data from 18 elementary school teachers and 379 students. The results showed that the teachers’ judgments of their students’ classroom engagement and achievement emotions were more strongly influenced by the students’ academic achievement than were the students’ self-reported classroom engagement and achievement emotions. However, the teachers’ judgments had a significant relationship with the corresponding student self-reports, even when controlling for the effects of academic achievement. It is worth noting that the accuracy of the teachers’ judgments of the students’ emotional status was significantly moderated by class size and whether the teacher was a homeroom or subject teacher. Overall, the results suggest that teachers are able to accurately judge their students’ classroom engagement and achievement emotions. The results also indicate that the accuracy of teacher judgments can be influenced by factors related to the quality of teacher-student interactions.