The link between achievement emotions, appraisals, and task performance: pedagogical considerations for emotions in CBLEs

Achievement emotions have a powerful influence on how students interact with current and future learning and performance tasks. As such, pedagogical practices that support adaptive student emotions are critical for teaching and learning in computer-based learning environments (CBLEs). This research investigates the relationship between during-task achievement emotions and participants’ appraisals of task control, value, perceived performance, and actual performance outcomes on a diagnostic reasoning task with a CBLE, BioWorld. Based on the emotions participants reported experiencing during the task, we found that participants could be organized into three groups using a k-means cluster analysis: a positive, negative, and low emotion group. Participants assigned to the positive emotion group had the highest subjective appraisals of task value, task control, and the highest perceived performance; however, these participants had lower levels of actual performance when compared to learners assigned to the low emotion cluster and had actual performance levels comparable to learners in the negative emotion cluster. These results provide preliminary evidence for fostering low emotionality rather than positive emotionality with pedagogical interventions in order to support better performance outcomes, while learners engage in academic achievement tasks in CBLEs.