A Teacher’s Emotional Support for Individual Pupils in His Second Grade Classroom:

The present study investigated ways in which a teacher supported individual pupils in his lower elementary school class when the children expressed their emotions. The participants were 33 second-graders ( 16 boys, 17 girls) and their teacher. The relation of the pupils ＇ emotional competence (EC) and academic achievement as assessed by the teacher, and the frequency, strategy, and sequence of support that the teacher provided to each pupil was examined. The results indicated that the teacher gave more support to the pupils with lower emotional competence; he assessed them as being at lower academic achievement levels only when they expressed positive or neutral emotions. When the children expressed negative emotions, the teacher supported the pupils with lower emotional competence more than those with higher emotional competence. When supporting the pupils whom he had rated as having lower emotional competence, his strategies included warnings, interrupting their expression of emotion, and re-explanation of classroom activities more than when he was supporting the pupils he had rated as having higher emotional competence. However, other strategies that he used were not related to his ratings of the pupils ＇ emotional competence or academic achievement. In addition, the teacher ＇ s management of timing and situations in which these strategies were used were examined. The discussion deals with the professionality of emotional support for individual pupils in elementary school classrooms.