Primary and lower secondary school students’ achievement emotions associated with teachers’ feedback

Feedbacks are very powerful drives for learning. Their effects on motivation have been widely investigated, frequently referring to the Self-Determination Theory. However, their relations with emotions have been examined rarely, and mainly with university students. In line with the Control-Value Theory, these studies confirmed that feedbacks can be conceptualised as antecedents of achievement emotions. To fill this gap, we focused on primary and lower secondary school students’ achievement emotions associated with feedbacks. Controlling for students’ abilities of text comprehension and second-order theory of mind, we explored which were the most intense emotions, whether feedback type influenced emotions, and whether emotions differed according to class level. We involved 970 fourth (n = 489; Mage = 9.76, SDage = 0.39) and seventh-graders (n = 481; Mage = 12.78, SDage = 0.44). They read four scenarios about teachers’ communications of school outcomes (success, failure) varying feedback type (descriptive, supportive-autonomy), and rated 10 achievement emotions (enjoyment, pride, hope, relaxation, relief, anger, anxiety, shame, boredom, sadness). Two linear mixed models showed that enjoyment, pride, and relief were the most intense emotions for success, while sadness, shame, and anxiety for failure. They also indicated that descriptive or supportive-autonomy feedbacks can make a difference for emotions such as hope and boredom. Moreover, they revealed different trends according to class level. Notwithstanding limitations, extending knowledge about reactions to feedbacks is of paramount relevance for teachers, whose everyday practices can have a cumulative impact on students’ emotions, in turn playing a core role in realising their potentials.