Leigh McLean

Associate Research Professor, Education University of Delaware

  • Newark DE

Prof. McLean investigates how teachers’ emotions and emotion-related experiences including well-being impact their effectiveness.

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Spotlight

4 min

Measuring how teachers' emotions can impact student learning

University of Delaware professor Leigh McLean has developed a new tool for measuring teachers’ emotional expressions and studying how these expressions affect their students’ attitudes toward learning. McLean uses this tool to gather new data showing emotional transmission between teachers and their students in fourth-grade classrooms. McLean and co-author Nathan Jones of Boston University share the results of their use of the tool in a new article in Contemporary Educational Psychology. They found that teachers displayed far more positive emotions than negative ones. But they also found that some teachers showed high levels of negative emotions. In these cases, teachers’ expressions of negative emotions were associated with reduced student enjoyment of learning and engagement. These findings add to a compelling body of research highlighting the importance of teachers’ and students’ emotional experiences within the context of teaching and learning. “Anyone who has been in a classroom knows that it is an inherently emotional environment, but we still don’t fully understand exactly how emotions, and especially the teachers’ emotions, work to either support or detract from students’ learning,” said McLean, who studies teachers’ emotions and well-being in the College of Education and Human Development’s School of Education (SOE) and Center Research in Education and Social Policy. “This new tool, and these findings, help us understand these processes more precisely and point to how we might provide emotion-centered classroom supports.” Measuring teacher and student emotions McLean and Jones collected survey data and video-recorded classroom observations from 65 fourth-grade teachers and 805 students in a Southwestern U.S. state. The surveys asked participants to report their emotions and emotion-related experiences — like feelings of enjoyment, worry or boredom — as well as their teaching and learning behaviors in mathematics and English language arts (ELA). Using the new observational tool they developed — the Teacher Affect Coding System — McLean and Jones also assessed teachers’ vocal tones, body posturing, body movements and facial expressions during classroom instruction and categorized outward displays of emotion as positive, negative or neutral. For example, higher-pitched or lilting vocal tones were categorized as positive, while noticeably harsh or sad vocal tones were categorized as negative. Overall, McLean and Jones found that teachers spent most of their instructional time displaying outward positive emotions. Interestingly though, they did not find any associations between these positive emotions and students’ content-related emotions or learning attitudes in ELA or math. “This lack of association might be because outward positivity is the relative ‘norm’ for elementary school teachers, and our data seem to support that,” McLean said. “That’s not to say that teachers’ positivity isn’t important, though. Decades of research has shown us that when teachers are warm, responsive and supportive, and when they foster positive relationships with their students, students do better in almost every way. It could be that positivity works best when done in tandem with other important teacher behaviors or routines, or it could be that it is more relevant for different student outcomes.” However, they did find that a small subset of teachers — about 10% — displayed notable amounts of negative emotions, with some showing negativity during as much as 80% of their instructional time. The students of these teachers reported reduced enjoyment and engagement in their ELA classes and reduced engagement in their math classes. “We think that these teachers are struggling with their real-time emotion regulation skills,” McLean said. “Any teacher, even a very positive one, will tell you that managing a classroom of students is challenging, and staying positive through the frustrating times takes a lot of emotional regulation. Emotion regulation is a particularly important skill for teachers because children inherently look to the social cues of adults in their immediate environment to gauge their level of safety and comfort. When a teacher is dysregulated, their students pick up on this in ways that can detract from learning.” Recommendations for supporting teacher well-being Given the findings of their study, McLean and Jones make several recommendations for teacher preparation and professional learning programs. As a first step, they recommend that teacher preparation and professional learning programs share information about how negative emotions and experiences are a normal part of the teaching experience. As McLean said, “It’s okay to be frustrated!” However, it is also important to be aware that repeated outward displays of negative emotion can impact students. McLean and Jones also suggest that these programs provide specific training to teachers on skills such as mindfulness and emotion regulation to help teachers manage negative emotions while they’re teaching. “Logically, these findings and recommendations make complete sense,” said Steve Amendum, professor and director of CEHD’s SOE, which offers a K-8 teacher education program. “After working with many, many teachers, I often see teachers' enthusiasm or dislike for a particular activity or content area transfer to their students.” McLean and Jones, however, emphasize that supporting teacher well-being can’t just be up to the teachers. Assistant principals, principals and other educational leaders should prioritize teacher wellness across the school and district. If teachers’ negative emotions in the classroom result in part from challenging working conditions or insufficient resources, educational leaders and policymakers should consider system-wide changes and supports to foster teacher well-being. To learn more about CEHD research in social and emotional development, visit its research page. To arrange an interview with McLean, connect with her directly by clicking on the contact button found on her ExpertFile profile page.

Leigh McLean

1 min

Exploring the ripple effect: How teachers' emotions impact student engagement and learning outcomes

The classroom environment is a dynamic ecosystem where the emotional state of educators can significantly influence students' engagement and learning outcomes.  In a new article published in Contemporary Educational Psychology, University of Delaware Associate Research Professor Leigh McLean offers a new tool—the Teacher Affect Coding System—for measuring teachers’ emotional expressions and studying how these expressions affect their students’ attitudes toward learning. With co-author Nathan Jones of Boston University, McLean uses this tool to gather new data showing emotional transmission between teachers and their students in fourth-grade classrooms. In the study, McLean and Jones, found that teachers displayed far more positive emotions than negative ones. But they also found that some teachers—about 10%—displayed notable amounts of negative emotions, with some showing negativity during as much as 80% of their instructional time. The students of these teachers reported reduced enjoyment and engagement in their ELA classes and reduced engagement in their math classes. Given the findings of their study, McLean and Jones make several recommendations for teacher preparation and professional learning programs. As a first step, they recommend that teacher preparation and professional learning programs share information about how negative emotions and experiences are a normal part of the teaching experience. As McLean said, “It’s okay to be frustrated!” McLean is available for interviews on the study, the tool and how teachers can help mitigate this effect. Click on her profile to contact her. 

Leigh McLean

2 min

University of Delaware experts share insights and strategies for navigating the upcoming school year

The College of Education and Human Development in the University of Delaware has a number of stories and experts for the upcoming school year.  Stories Bridging the language gap: How AWE software fosters inclusivity for English Language Learners and Non-English Language Learners alike Creating a mindful classroom: Tips for teachers on how to have a peaceful transition into the 2024-2025 school year Empowering Black and Latinx Boys in Their Postsecondary Journeys: The Role of School Communities UD assistant professor Eric Layland shares new research on LGBTQ+ developmental milestones and supporting LGBTQ+ youth University of Delaware assistant professor explores the tensions between hopes and expectations in vocational planning for autistic young adults Experts Allison Karpyn – an associate professor who can speak to topics related to hunger, obesity, school food, supermarket access, and food insecurity. She has spoken extensively about food in schools and can offer context to those subjects. Roderick Carey – an assistant professor whose current interdisciplinary research serves to make sense of the school experiences of black and Latino adolescent boys and young men in urban contexts. He can also talk about teacher education as it relates to men in the field/the impact of male teachers. To contact Karpyn or Carey, click their profiles.  More experts... If you would like to pursue any of these stories or speak to any of the following experts, they are all willing and excited to chat. Contact mediarelations@udel.edu to speak to them. Eric Layland – an assistant professor who can speak about LGBTQ+ student experiences from a research perspective. His work bridges LGBTQ+ developmental research to community impact through developmentally-informed, affirmative interventions. Sarah Mallory – an assistant professor who specializes in special education with a special focus on autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. She also works within the Center for Disabilities Studies. Sarah Curtiss – an assistant professor who specializes in special education with a special focus on autistic youth. Brittany Zakszeski – an assistant professor and nationally certified school psychologist, licensed psychologist and behavior analyst. She focuses on student and teacher mental health and can comment on what concealed weapons carried by teachers can do for the mental wellbeing of both students and teachers. Lauren Bailes – an associate professor who focuses on the ways in which organizational, social-cognitive, and leadership theory unite to promote the success of school leaders and K-12 students. Bryan VanGronigen – an assistant professor who specializes in organizational resilience and change management in K-12 schools with specific interest areas in efforts to improve schools, the preparation and professional development of educational leaders and educational policy analyses. Lynsey Gibbons – an associate professor specializing in mathematics education, in teacher professional learning and school partnerships across content areas.  Contact mediarelations@udel.edu to speak to these experts or for more information on the stories above. 

Leigh McLeanAllison KarpynRoderick L. CareyJoshua Wilson
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Biography

Dr. Leigh McLean is an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Education and Center for Research in Educational and Social Policy at the University of Delaware. In her program of research, she investigates how teachers’ emotions and emotion-related experiences including well-being impact their effectiveness. She is particularly interested in how teachers’ emotions impact their instructional practices, and the role that early-career teachers’ emotions play as they transition into the career. She holds expertise in quantitative, mixed-methods, and longitudinal study design and implementation, multileveled data analysis, and classroom observation. She is currently PI on two federally funded projects: one from the Institute of Education Science exploring how elementary teachers’ feelings and beliefs impact their effectiveness in the content areas they teach, and one from the National Science Foundation exploring how the mentored teaching experience impacts elementary mathematics teachers’ effectiveness during the early career stage.

Prior to joining the University of Delaware, Dr. McLean was a post-doctoral researcher and research faculty member in the School of Social and Family Dynamics and the Teachers College at Arizona State University. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Florida State University and Arizona State University, respectively.

Dr. McLean has been published in several outlets focusing on children’s development, educational processes, and teaching including Child Development, Contemporary Educational Psychology, and Teaching and Teacher Education and her work has been featured in news outlets including EdWeek and The Today Show.

Industry Expertise

Research
Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

Developmental Psychology
Instructional Practices
Teachers and Teaching
Well-Being
Classroom Behavior

Answers

Can teacher anxiety impact student anxiety and performance?
Leigh McLean

In a recent study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, University of Delaware associate research professor Leigh McLean and her co-authors found a strong connection between teachers’ math and science anxiety and the respective math and science anxiety of their low socioeconomic status (SES) students. When a teacher was more anxious in these content areas, their low-SES students were also more anxious; and, when teachers were less anxious, so were their low-SES students.

Media Appearances

What One Educator’s Grief Reveals About the Mental Health Challenges Facing Teachers Now

The 74  online

2023-02-04

The demand for professional support is also growing rapidly. Anxiety and depression symptoms in teachers are on the rise, highest for early career educators and teachers of color, according to Leigh McLean, a researcher at the University of Delaware.

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Schools Aim to Ease Teachers’ Tension, Burnout

VOA Learning English  online

2022-09-06

More school systems are making an effort to deal with some of the problems teachers face, including taking care of their mental health. Many schools do not have enough teachers. Current problems facing teachers include behavioral problems and fears of shootings.

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School districts move to ease teacher stress, burnout

Associated Press  online

2022-08-27

“It’s all pretty bad,” said Leigh McLean, the primary investigator at the Teacher Emotions, Characteristics, and Health Lab at the University of Delaware School of Education, who has found levels of depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion among elementary school teachers that are 100% to 400% higher than before the pandemic.

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Articles

The roles of adaptability and school climate in first-year teachers' developing perceptions of themselves, their classroom relationships, and the career

Journal of School Psychology

2023

The teaching career, and especially the transition from pre-service to in-service teaching, is uniquely characterized by change. Adaptability is an internal characteristic that has been shown to benefit teachers and may be especially relevant as they begin developing initial perceptions of themselves as educators, of their relationships with students, and of the teaching career at large. Importantly though, it is likely that the impacts of adaptability depend in part on the broader context.

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Associations Between Teacher and Student Mathematics, Science, and Literacy Anxiety in Fourth Grade

Journal of Educational Psychology

2023

The present study explored associations among teachers’ anxiety for teaching mathematics, science, and English language arts and their students’ own anxiety in each content area, and how these associations varied depending on student sex and socioeconomic status (SES). Participants included 33 fourth-grade teachers and 463 students from 14 schools in the Southwestern United States. Multiple regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were run regressing students’ mid-year, self-reported content-area anxiety on teachers’ self-reported content-area anxiety at the beginning of the year and controlling for students’ beginning-of-year anxiety in that content area.

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Teachers' Well-Being: Sources, Implications, and Directions for Research

Routledge Resources Online - Education

2022

The teaching profession has long been recognized as highly demanding of its practitioners (Johnson et al., 2005; Travers, 2001), with most teachers navigating multiple career challenges including heavy workloads, difficulties supporting students' varying needs, struggles with classroom management, isolation from colleagues, limited job resources, low wages, and low professional prestige (Curbow et al., 2003; Day & Qing, 2009; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005, Raskin et al., 2015; Veenman, 1984).

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Research Grants

Supplement: The Impacts of Preservice Supervised Field Experiences on Elementary Mathematics Teachers’ Retention and Effectiveness

National Science Foundation

Supplemental Funding for Postdoctoral Researchers to Mitigate COVID-19 Impacts on Research Career Progression, 2 years

The Impacts of Preservice Supervised Field Experiences on Elementary Mathematics Teachers’ Retention and Effectiveness

National Science Foundation

EHR Core Research Program, Track 1/Level 2, 3 years, July 2021–June 2024

Exploring Elementary Teachers’ Feelings, Beliefs and Effectiveness across Mathematics, Science and Literacy

U.S. Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences, Education Research Grants/Effective Teachers and Effective Teaching, Goal 1, 4 years, July 2018–June 2024 (timeline extended due to COVID-19 pandemic)

Accomplishments

Research Institute for Implementation Science in Education (RIISE) Fellow

2022

School Mental Health Assessment, Research & Training Center (SMART), University of Washington

Education

Arizona State University

PhD

Developmental Psychology

2015

Florida State University

MS

Developmental Psychology

2012

Oregon State University

BS

Human Development and Family Sciences/Early Childhood Development and Education

2010

Affiliations

  • American Psychological Association (APA)
  • Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  • American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  • Society for Research in Educational Effectiveness (SREE)

Event Appearances

Exploring the Role of Classroom Processes on Students

SREE 2022 Conference  Renaissance Arlington Capitol View Hotel

2022-09-24

Towards an Equitable Recovery: Discussing the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Teacher Well-Being across Teacher Groups

SREE 2022 Conference  Renaissance Arlington Capitol View Hotel

2022-09-23