Beyond cognition: the four-seasons framework for integrating affect into mathematics teaching

This study aimed to characterise effective pedagogies for affect-focused mathematics teaching and develop a corresponding framework for educational practice. The data consisted of 42 video-recorded Mathematics Grounding Activities (MGAs), which were co-designed and implemented by teachers and researchers to emphasise metaphorizing, scaffolding, and gamifying. Using qualitative methods, we coded the MGA videos and identified 25 distinct affective and cognitive pedagogies, alongside four distinct phases of instruction. These elements were synthesized into the Four-Seasons Framework. This framework outlines four sequential teaching phases (Spring to Winter), each featuring a primary affective pedagogy (i.e., situation interest, gamification, achievement-related beliefs, and academic emotion) and a corresponding cognitive one (i.e., prior knowledge, scaffolding, assessment for learning, and constructivism). A quantitative analysis of the pedagogical codes revealed that all MGAs, despite their primary focus on affect, complementarily addressed both affective and cognitive domains.