THE INTENSITY OF TEACHER EMOTIONS IN SITUATIONS CONNECTED WITH DYSLEXIC STUDENT’S DIFFICULTIES

The aim of this research was to recognize differences in the intensity of emotions in teachers in situations related to the dyslexic student's difficulties. A total of 299 teachers were examined and the tool used was a questionnaire for the study Teachers' Perception of a Student with Developmental Dyslexia [Postrzeganie ucznia z dysleksją rozwojową przez nauczycieli (PUZD_N)] – U. Gosk, I. Kucharczyk, E.M. Kulesza – emotional component.

The tool contained 10 dyslexia related situations that were assigned to four problem categories. The first referred to literacy (including text understanding), the second - mistakes made while writing, the third - student work pace, and the fourth concerned the teacher's reaction to the received opinion from the psychological and pedagogical counseling center. The teacher's task was to determine the intensity of emotions in given typical school situations. Emotions were analyzed in three dimensions. The first one included emotions of a negative direction (e.g. nervousness), the second one - a positive direction (joy), and the third one - a neutral direction (e.g. calmness).

Because the subjects determined the intensity of their emotions in all situations, the results were analyzed using the analysis of variance with repeated measurements. Analyzed were the differences in the range of results on the three dimensions of the emotional component of the attitude between the four categories of the situation.

It was found that there are statistically significant differences in the range of results on the first dimension of the emotional component of the attitude which included emotions of negative direction (e.g. helplessness) F(2.84; 733.26)=37.85, p<0.001, and second dimension, to which emotions with a positive direction were qualified F(2.16; 516.41)=7.24, p<0.01. On the other hand, no differences were found on the third emotional dimension (to which emotions of neutral direction were included) F(2.39; 598.58)=1.54, p<0.05.

The analysis of the variance was supplemented by pairwise comparisons based on the Bonferroni correction. It was found that the results on the first dimension of the emotional component of the attitude were the lowest in social situations (M=2.14; SD=1.24), higher in reading situations (M=2.42; SD=1.26) and work pace (M=2.40; SD=1.78), and the highest - in writing situations (M=2.56; SD=1.19). The results on the second dimension of the emotional component of the attitude were higher in the writing situation (M=1.51; SD=0.75) than in the reading situations (M=1.39; SD=0.75) and work pace (M=1.36; SD=0.67); and in social situations (M=1.47; SD=0.90) were higher than in the case of work pace.
The above results show that the emotions arising in teachers are conditioned not only by dyslexia but also by the intensity of traits.