Social sharing of task-related emotions in Design-Based Learning: Challenges and opportunities

Research into the role of emotions in Design-Based Learning (DBL) is growing, but little attention has been paid to the regulation of students’ emotional resources to support their DBL experiences. Here we investigate the social sharing of emotions in the DBL context and explore how such behavior affects students’ DBL experiences that might help emotional regulation and team cooperation. We report two intervention studies conducted in 2020 during the Covid-19 epidemic, which explored different ways of sharing task-related emotions with peers and teachers, and evaluated the impact upon a total of 28 students’ (aged 13-16) DBL experiences. The first study concerns the implementation of a group chat channel in Microsoft Teams ® for sharing emotions. The second employed FireFlies (i.e., an interactive lighting device) and a set of task cards that served as a peripheral display for sharing task-related emotions. Data were collected through questionnaires, observations, and interviews. Based on this study's findings, we make recommendations for designing tools to support students in sharing emotions and suggesting how instructors could address students’ emotions.