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Background and Aim: The transfer to distance teaching in the spring of 2020 brought significant changes to the educational system. Those changes raised questions about the relationship between the emotional and motivational aspects of learning and attending classes in a completely altered context. Bearing this in mind, the aim of this study was to examine whether epistemic emotions are mediators in the relationship between students’ appraisals of control and value and their motivation for learning physics in the period of distance teaching, in accordance with the control-value theory of achievement emotions. Method: The study was conducted online in May 2020 with eight-grade students from ten elementary schools in the City of Zagreb and Zagreb County. In total, 263 students (147 female) participated in the study and were on average aged 14. All questionnaires were adapted to the subject of physics in the context of the distance teaching period. The students estimated the intensity of seven epistemic emotions (surprise, curiosity, enjoyment, confusion, anxiety, frustration, and boredom), appraisals of control and value, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for learning. Results: The conducted path analysis showed that the emotions of curiosity and enjoyment were significant mediators between value appraisal and intrinsic motivation for learning. Specifically, the value positively predicted intrinsic motivation for learning physics by predicting higher intensity of curiosity and enjoyment. On the other hand, confusion was a significant mediator between cognitive appraisals of control and value and extrinsic motivation for learning. Control and value appraisals negatively predicted confusion, which in turn positively predicted extrinsic motivation for learning. Conclusion: The results gave us an insight into the relationship between emotional and motivational aspects of learning in the distance- teaching setting and were elaborated in regard to theoretical assumptions of the control-value theory of achievement emotions. |
