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/

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

 

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