When students solve mathematical problems, they can have emotional
responses, which in turn can influence their motivation and achievement. It is part
of a teacher’s professional competence to accurately judge and take into consideration
students’ emotions with the goal of optimizing student learning. The current
study was aimed at investigating students’ task-specific emotions and pre-service
teachers’ judgments of students’ emotions. The research questions were: (1) Do the
extents to which students experience enjoyment and boredom differ for problems
with and without a connection to reality? (2) Do pre-service teachers’ judgments of
students’ task-specific enjoyment and boredom differ for problems with and without
a connection to reality? (3) Can pre-service teachers accurately judge students’
task-specific enjoyment and boredom for problems with and without a connection
to reality? To answer these research questions, 100 ninth graders were asked to
rate the extents to which they experienced enjoyment and boredom while solving
mathematical problems. In addition, 163 pre-service teachers were asked to judge
fictitious ninth graders’ enjoyment and boredom with respect to the same mathematical
problems. Results indicated that students experienced the same levels of
enjoyment and boredom when solving problems with and without a connection to
reality. However, pre-service teachers predicted that students would experience more
enjoyment and less boredom when solving problems with a connection to reality. In
addition, findings indicated that pre-service teachers had trouble accurately judging
students’ task-specific emotions and that the ability to make accurate judgments
varied greatly amongst pre-service teachers. Implications for teaching practice and
teacher education are discussed.

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• Do Students Enjoy Computing a Triangle’s Side? Enjoyment and Boredom While Solving Problems with and Without a Connection to Reality from Students’ and Pre-Service Teachers’ Perspectives