John Poulsen & Gregory Fouts (2001) Facilitating Academic Achievement Through Affect Attunement in the Classroom, The Journal of Educational Research, 94:3, 185-190, DOI: 10.1080/00220670109599915

Pace University

The effect of teacher-student attunement on the academic performance of students with and without learning disabilities was examined. Each grade 4 student (24 with learning disabilities and 24 without, but matched on age and gender) was systematically exposed to 2 teaching approaches- attuned vs. nonattuned (traditional) at different times using different academic contents (math and social studies). The results showed that the attuned teaching resulted in significantly more teacher-student attunement than did the nonattuned condition. The attuned teaching condition significantly improved academic performance over nonattuned teaching. 

Facilitating Academic Achievement Through Affect Attunement in the Classroom

Reference for Facilitating Academic Achievement Through Affect Attunement in the Classroom

Several writers have suggested a relationship between academic achievement and social-emotional skills. For example, Mercer (1983) suggested that the lack of social-emotional skills may limit academic success. Smith (1988) stated that education must focus on the social skills necessary for relationships because those skills enhance cognitive development and learning. Sabornie (1994) reported that low-achieving children have a lack of social skills similar to that of children with learning disabilities, and this accounts for poor academic achievement. 

Attunement: Academic Achievement and Social-Emotional Skills 

They introduced attunement methods through the lesson plans; the two core academic subjects were social studies-  the Great Depression and Mathematics- estimating measurements. Four lesson plans were created: an attuned lesson on the Great Depression, a nonattuned lesson on the Great Depression, an attuned lesson on estimating measurement and a nonattuned  lesson on estimating measurement. 

Attunement: Method 

In the nonattuned condition, students were exposed to a traditional approach to teaching that emphasized  cognitive and general classroom involvement with the materials. That is, they read the info in texts and watched films, talked about the subject or in journals and they sat at their desks the majority of the lesson. 

Nonattuned Condition 

The attuned condition occurred in a situation that was non stressful and would elicit low levels of anxiety (especially evaluation apprehension). It was designed to allow mirroring and empathic responding, safety in expressing emotions, and emotional involvement with the teacher and materials. Activities encouraged freedom of movement and the elicitation of emotions so that spontaneous focusing on one another, developing interactional and matching rhythms and behaviors, matching of internal states and “being in the moment” with one another could occur.

Attuned Condition 

Pre- and post tests were developed for each lesson (mathematics and social studies) to assess any change in academic performance associated with the teaching condition. There were two versions for each and each contained multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions that were based on the texts and accompanying materials for the lessons established by the curriculum guide. One week before a particular lesson, the appropriate pretest was administered to the class by the teacher. Before the initiation of each lesson, a video camera positioned in a corner of the room was turned on and remained on for the class as it recorded the activities of the whole class and subsequently allowed the coding of teacher-student attunement as a manipulation check for the attuned teaching condition. Then the appropriate posttest was administered 3-5 days after the lesson by the same teacher. 

Attunement in the Classroom Assessment 

Along with coding the videotape, they examined the scores of the 48 students (within the 24 matched pairs). A difference or gain score was calculated by subtracting the pretest score  from the posttest score. Each student had two gain scores, one from attuned condition and one from the nonattuned condition. The ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of teaching condition as there was significantly greater improvement in the attuned condition than the nonattuned. An examination of Table 1 revealed that exposure to attuned teaching resulted in a 360% improvement in gains scored over the traditional nonattuned approach to teaching. 


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