Supporting affective communication in the classroom with the Subtle Stone

This paper highlights the difficulties intrinsic to gauging a student’’s affective state. We argue that there is a need to further support the emotional experiences of students within settings such as the classroom. Findings from our first study illustrate the inherent difficulties of understanding the emotional experiences of students within the classroom context. For example, we identify low correlations between physical expressions of emotion and the emotions reported by the students. Findings from the first study were used to define a set of design requirements for the Subtle Stone, a device which bridges the emotional communication gap between teachers and their students. A second study saw eight high school students use a set of Subtle Stones throughout their learning. The qualitative analysis presented here focuses on the Subtle Stone as a flexible new tool for capturing self-reports of emotional experience in real time throughout learning experiences. The analysis indicates that the Subtle Stone engenders a sense of private communication between student and teacher, as well as suggesting that the Subtle Stone may raise a student’’s awareness about her own emotional experiences. Supporting affective communication in the classroom with the Subtle Stone 189