Making Students Feel Better: Examining the Relationships between Teacher Confirmation and College Students' Emotional Outcomes

Guided by broaden-and-build theory and emotional response theory, we examined college students' emotional outcomes in the classroom (i.e., emotional interest, emotional support, emotion work, emotional valence) as a function of teacher confirmation (i.e., responding to questions, demonstrating interest, teaching style). Participants were 159 undergraduate students who completed self-report questionnaires. A series of multiple regressions revealed that when instructors used confirming behaviors in the classroom, students reported higher levels of emotional interest, greater emotional support, and a more positive emotional valence about the class. Additionally, when instructors demonstrated interest in students' learning, students reported engaging in less emotion work for the class.