Emotion control in collaborative learning situations: Do students regulate emotions evoked by social challenges/

Abstract

Background During recent decades, self‐regulated learning (SRL) has become a major research field. SRL successfully integrates the cognitive and motivational components of learning. Self‐regulation is usually seen as an individual process, with the social aspects of regulation conceptualized as one aspect of the context. However, recent research has begun to investigate whether self‐regulation processes are complemented by socially shared regulation processes. Aims The presented study investigated what kind of socio‐emotional challenges students experience during collaborative learning and whether the students regulate the emotions evoked during these situations. The interplay of the emotion regulation processes between the individual and the group was also studied. Sample The sample for this study was 63 teacher education students who studied in groups of three to five during three collaborative learning tasks. Method Students' interpretations of experienced social challenges and their attempts to regulate emotions evoked by these challenges were collected following each task using the Adaptive Instrument for the Regulation of Emotions. Results The results indicated that students experienced a variety of social challenges. Students also reported the use of shared regulation in addition to self‐regulation. Finally, the results suggested that intrinsic group dynamics are derived from both individual and social elements of collaborative situations. Conclusion The findings of the study support the assumption that students can regulate emotions collaboratively as well as individually. The study contributes to our understanding of the social aspects of emotional regulation in collaborative learning contexts.