Month: August 2024

by Rhonda McCreight and Diane Janes

Emotional Learning

The experience of both teaching and learning can feel like a roller coaster ride for both the instructor and the learner. In Pekrun’s book Emotions and Learning (2014), he prefaces the general anxiety and emotional state of learning across the board professing that “the classroom is an emotional place” (p.6). No matter what type of institution, delivery mode or learner demographics, as educators it is essential that we understand and embrace the emotional journey of learning so that we can truly engage the teaching and learning process. Here are a few tips and resources to consider in your journey towards understanding your students’ emotional learning needs.

Pekrun (2014) explores the topic of emotions and learning through a series of ten principles which are organized under three main concepts:

1. Understanding the nature and diversity of learner emotions – what emotions are and why they play a part in learning.
2. Addressing functions, antecedents, and regulation of emotions – the consequences of emotions in the classroom, what causes them and how they can benefit or create barriers to learning.
3. Understanding the role of education on modifying or influencing emotions in the classroom – how educators directly impact, mitigate or enhance positive emotional reactions in the learning experience.

He bases his research on four main types of learning-related emotions – achievement, epistemic, topic and social emotions (Petruk, 2014, p. 8). Achievement emotions relate directly to the success or failure of learning, such as a terrible exam score or a killer oral presentation. Epistemic emotions are the cognitive impacts triggered by a learning task such as delight at seeing a problem solved or curiosity to see how the lightbulb turns on. Topic emotions, conversely, are the emotions triggered by the affective domain like empathy for the main character of a book. Finally, social emotions are the human connections and relationships made within the classroom.

Each of these categories describes how or where the emotion is manifested. This resource, although ten years old, provides pragmatic suggestions for improving the “cognitive and motivational quality of classroom instruction” which in turn can lead to an “increase of self-confidence and enjoyment, and a reduction of boredom and anxiety” in the learner and fosters the ability to self-regulate their learning (Petruk, 2014, p.20).

Finally, as we navigate the post covid space, it has been observed that in today’s world “Emotional complexities are rampant. [There is] Declining wellbeing. Increased polarization. Burnout. Lack of retention. How can colleges & universities utilize social emotional learning to support students, faculty, staff & community to build a healthier context for learning and work? The last two years have brought to light key challenges in colleges and universities — given the emotional complexity of this moment, is it important that we infuse more emotional intelligence development?” (Six Seconds, 2022).

To help us examine what we are seeing in higher ed with respect to social emotional learning post covid, watch this panel of university and colleague educators discuss how to support themselves and their learners on navigating emotions and learning. Sponsored by Six Seconds, The Emotional Intelligence Network. Six Seconds is a global network with a mandate to help everyone grow their emotional intelligence. This video is 60 minutes long. Six Seconds Website https://www.6seconds.org/

• Social Emotional Learning in Colleges & Universities: Livestream https://youtu.be/V1tAGD0SDMY

If you are not able to spend time today on a longer video, then consider this shorter video produced by Edutopia. While it does focus on K-12 teaching, the conversations and ideas in this video are very translatable to the university classroom. This video is 4:28 minutes long. Official Website: https://edutopia.org

• Building Adult Capacity for Social and Emotional Learning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cht0Lm0rBAY

As you plan your Fall and Winter terms, can you think of ways to engage your learners’ emotional journey in your classrooms?

Resources

Edutopia. (2020). Building Adult Capacity for Social and Emotional Learning. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cht0Lm0rBAY

Pekrun, R. (2014). Emotions and learning. International Academy of Education. International Bureau of Education. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000227679

Six Seconds. (2022). Social Emotional Learning in Colleges & Universities: Livestream. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1tAGD0SDMY

by Alexis Brown and Carolyn Ives

Teaching the Whole Student: Incorporating Spiritual Learning

Educators have long relied on learning taxonomies to help them determine and articulate what learners should be able to know, do, and value by the end of a lesson, course, program, or credential. One such taxonomy is one developed by Bloom (1956) and updated by Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia (1964), which outlines three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective. It’s a taxonomy many at TRU use to develop curriculum.

At the Interculturalizing the Curriculum workshop offered by Kyra Garson in May 2019, I was introduced to a different taxonomy: noting a gap in the domains posited by Bloom, Marcella LaFever (2016) reimagined Bloom’s taxonomy and added a fourth domain — the spiritual domain — and aligned all four learning domains with the Medicine Wheel, explaining that the spiritual domain was “essential for balance in . . . support[ing] students in their learning goals” (p. 409). The levels of learning in the spiritual domain LaFever introduces include honouring, value/d, connect/ed, empower/ed, and self-actualize/d. The reimagined taxonomy appears on page 417 of LaFever’s article, and the associated verb list appears on page 418.

LaFever also notes the challenges of assessing these kinds of learning outcomes, and she offers possibilities, such as reflection work, oral storytelling, demonstrating a commitment to relationship-building, role-playing and articulated plans for self-growth (p. 419). As many of us are intentionally striving to teach the whole student, considering learner spiritual growth is one way to acknowledge that students have multiple dimensions of learning beyond the cognitive.

LaFever also acknowledges her positionality as a non-Indigenous researcher and shares her challenges of and approaches to doing this work (p. 410-11). However, if post-secondary institutions wish to decolonize the curriculum, it will have to be taken on as everyone’s work, not only that of Indigenous staff and faculty. Considering the spiritual learning of students is one such approach we all can take.

Link to LaFever’s article: “Switching from Bloom to the Medicine Wheel: creating learning outcomes that support Indigenous ways of knowing in post-secondary education”

The second resource we have selected for you in the spiritual domain is a video by Secwépemc storyteller Kenthen Thomas. Spirituality is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, being attached to mother earth (RCMP Aboriginal Policing Services, 2010 as cited in Lafever, 2016). The domain of spirituality underpins and connects all other domains and is focused on rising above self to attend to others. Thomas’s video is a way to begin considering how to incorporate the spiritual learning domain through honouring Secwépemc teaching on the interconnectedness of storytelling and land, the laws that emerge from these stories, and how stories guide us to make ethical decisions in all disciplinary fields.

Link to Thomas’s video: Kenthen Thomas: Storytelling and the Link to the Land (youtube.com)

We’d like to invite you to consider one or more of the courses you teach:

Is there a way spiritual learning can be integrated?

If you’re designing a new course, could learning outcomes be included from the spiritual domain?

If CELT can support you in integrating learning in the spiritual domain into your courses, please reach out to us at celt@tru.ca.

References and Resources

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Longmans, Green, & Co.

CRICKET: Course renewal in a kit. (2019).

Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B. S. Bloom, & Masia, B. B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook II: The affective domain. New York: David McKay.

LaFever, M. (2016). Switching from Bloom to the Medicine Wheel: creating learning outcomes that support Indigenous ways of knowing in post-secondary education. Intercultural Education, 27(5), pp. 409-424. DOI: 10.1080/14675986.2016.1240496.

Thomas, K. (2020). Storytelling and the Link to the Land. YouTube. Last retrieved July 3, 2024.