#609: Close Encounters: Teacher Proximity and Student-Reported Emotions While Using ST Math

Students’ academic emotions are critical to learning (Pekrun et al., 2002; Tan et al., 2021) and are linked to teacher actions (Meyer & Turner, 2007), some of which require close proximity. Prior studies emphasize the importance of proximity in shaping classroom environments, student behavior, and math anxiety (Shores et al., 1993; Quinnell, 2022). Yet, research on proximity is limited, especially in technology-mediated classrooms where teachers may not necessarily be in close proximity to students. This study examined the moment-to-moment, bidirectional relationship between student-reported emotions and teacher proximity during ST Math sessions. Using multilevel vector autoregression on experience sampling data from 92 elementary students, we found that frustration was associated with closer subsequent proximity, but it is the opposite for boredom. Conversely, closer proximity predicted lower subsequent boredom. These findings suggest that teacher proximity may play an important role in managing students’ emotions in technology-mediated settings.