Effects of Level of Regulatory Teaching on Achievement Emotions in the Learning Process: Anxiety and Coping Strategies in Higher Education

Introduction. In the teaching-learning process at university, achievement emotions prove to be very important and are attracting much attention as an important student variable. Regulatory Teaching is a characteristic of effective teaching that is related to students’ achievement emotions. Test anxiety is a type of negative emotion, present in study and exam situations. Coping strategies is a meta-emotional variable defined as behavioral and cognitive efforts that are carried out in order to deal with stress, whereby we can address both external and internal stress- generating demands. The objective of the present research is to establish how different levels of Regulatory Teaching produce differences in test anxiety and the types of coping strategies used by university students.
Method. A total of 202 students from the University of Almeria (Spain) participated in an assessment of the teaching-learning process and achievement emotions. The following measures were used: (1) Regulatory teaching with the IATLP, in its Spanish validated version; (2) Test anxiety, with the TAI-80, in the Spanish validated version, and (3) Coping strategies, with the Spanish Coping Strategies Scales, also in a validated version. The analyses undertaken were cluster analyses (low- medium-high), ANOVAs and MANOVAs, with an ex post-facto design.
Results. The level of Regulatory Teaching had an effect on level of test anxiety, and coping strategies. In this study, the university students who perceived a high level of Regulatory Teaching had a low level of test anxiety, a low level of emotion-focused coping strategies, and a high level of problem-focused strategies. However, students who perceived a low level of Regulatory Teaching had a high level of test anxiety, high level of emotion-focused coping strategies, and a low level of problem- focused strategies.
Conclusion. Evidence is offered to defend that Regulatory Teaching is an important characteristic of effective teaching, because: (1) it protects against strong negative emotional reactions; (2) it is associated with perceived predictability in the academic context; (3) consequently, the student focuses on the problem, and does not need to focus on negative achievement emotions. With this result, we can focus intervention strategies on the design and development of regulatory teaching, in the university academic context.