Promoting Chinese students’ positive achievement emotions: A systematic review of enhancement interventions in China

A growing body of studies on emotions in education have found consistent evidence to support that students’ positive emotions in achievement situations are associated with school engagement, self-regulated learning, high academic achievement and other desirable learning outcomes. However, how can students’ positive emotions in achievement situations be effectively enhanced remains a challenging research question to address, no matter in Western or in Eastern educational contexts. This review aims to systematically examine these published intervention studies to enhance achievement emotions among Chinese students based on Pekrun’s (2006) comprehensive conceptual framework of achievement emotions (i.e., the control-value model). Specifically, based on China Knowledge Resource integrated Database (CNKI), this study reviewed 225 journal articles on achievement emotions published by Chinese scholars starting from 2005 to 2017 (over 12 years). Educational levels ranged from primary to higher education. Intervention approaches to enhance achievement emotions together with other key variables involved in these studies were categorised as follows: Environment Appraisal Emotion Learning Achievement (a sequence of key variables in the control-value model). It is surprising to find that among the 225 publications on achievement emotions, solely six studies (around 3%) tested a narrow range of intervention approaches to enhance students’ achievement emotions. Specifically, intervention periods ranged from a single class to a semester. These intervention strategies involved in the reviewed intervention studies can be summarised as two major categories: designs of social environments and emotion-oriented regulation training. More detailed research designs of the six intervention studies and key findings are elaborated and discussed in relation to the antecedent and consequence variables conceptualised in the control-value model. Implications and limitations of these studies are also discussed to inform further improvements to cater for the needs of diverse learners in terms of developing positive emotions in various achievement situations. Copyright © 2017 WERA-HKERA.