Temporal Dynamic Networks for Investigating Teacher Emotion Regulation and Student Engagement

Teacher emotion regulation is widely recognized as a crucial factor influencing classroom climate and student engagement. However, much existing research relies on prespecified models that assume linear, static, and often unidirectional—or occasionally reciprocal—relationships, oversimplifying the complex interplay between teacher emotion regulation and student engagement. These studies typically treat emotion regulation and student engagement as separate constructs linked by pre-specified causal pathways, overlooking the dynamic and systemic nature of classroom emotional processes. This oversimplification has led to theoretical tensions, including inconsistent findings regarding directionality—for example, teacher emotion regulation influencing student engagement (Burić, 2025), student engagement influencing teacher emotion regulation (Wang et al., 2021), or reciprocal relationships between the two (Frenzel et al., 2018)—and an underappreciation of the multifaceted, evolving interactions between teachers and students.
Dynamic network approach is a novel framework that conceptualizes teacher emotion regulation and student engagement as interconnected components within a multidirectional system. Unlike traditional models, this approach does not require prespecifying causal pathways, allowing it to reveal the complex teacher-student interactions occurring in classrooms. By modeling constructs as mutually influencing nodes in a dynamic network, the approach captures the simultaneous, reciprocal, and multidirectional relationships that shape classroom emotional exchanges. This perspective addresses key theoretical challenges by revealing how teachers’ emotion regulation strategies and student engagement co-evolve through complex feedback loops. Incorporating network approach into research on teacher emotion regulation offers a nuanced and systemic understanding of emotional dynamics in the classroom. This advancement not only deepens theoretical insight but also informs the development of more adaptive interventions to better support both teachers and students.

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