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What Does Emotion Have to Do with Learning? Everything!

2017; Wiley; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/1541-4329.12116

1541-4329

Shelly J. Schmidt,

Educational Leadership and Innovation

"When educators fail to appreciate the importance of students' emotions, they fail to appreciate a critical force in students' learning. One could argue, in fact, that they fail to appreciate the very reason that students learn at all." (Immordino-Yang 2016, p.40) In the April 2017 JFSE editorial, we began exploring the emotional dimensions of learning. I have continued that expedition by discussing the topic with a wide variety of people, including my colleagues, the Illinois Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning personnel, my husband, my children, my friends, and my children's teachers. I also have continued the journey by deep reading1 the book "Emotions, Learning, and the Brain" by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (2016). My deep reading of the first few chapters, which are focused on why and how emotions are integral to learning, caused me to grow in appreciation of the profound and impactful relationship that exists between emotion and cognition. In turn, it also strengthened my resolve to discover ways that I could incorporate what I was learning about emotion and cognition into my pedagogical practices. Thus, the purpose of this editorial is to further explain and convince you, the readers, of the critical connection between emotion and deep, meaningful learning. Once convinced, I believe you won't be able to help it; you will be driven, like I am, to learn more about how to practically employ emotion to facilitate cognition in your classroom (or workplace, or boardroom, or team, and so on). I think we would all acknowledge that emotions and feelings, as well as bodily state (for example, well-fed or hungry, rested or tired, healthy or sick, and so on), affect students' performance. However, the depth of the relationship between emotion and cognition is often underestimated and misunderstood. Based on revolutionary neuroscience research over the last two decades, the understanding of the influence of emotion on thinking and learning has undergone a major transformation. The old view that emotions interfere with learning is being replaced by the new view that emotions and cognition are supported by interdependent neural processes. The very large interdependence [overlap] between emotion and cognition is termed "emotional thought" and encompasses processes of learning, memory, decision-making, and creativity (Immordino-Yang and Damasico 2007). Immordino-Yang (2016) conveys the magnitude of the neurological relationship between cognition and emotion using a Venn-like diagram, which allows us to visualize their substantial connection (Figure 1). The significance of this interwoven connection between emotion and cognition is so profound that, as asserted by Immordino-Yang (2016), "It is literally neurobiologically impossible to build memories, engage complex thoughts, or make meaningful decisions without emotions" (p. 18). To further help the reader comprehend the profoundness of emotional thought, Immordino-Yang (2016) provides a visual analogy. Prior to the findings of affective social neuroscience research, "Emotions were [viewed] like toddlers in a china shop, interfering with the orderly rows of stemware [cognition] on the shelves" (p. 30). However, based on evidence from patients with brain damage, as well as from healthy people, the view has dramatically changed, "taken as a whole, [research studies] show that emotions are not just messy toddlers in a china shop, running around breaking and obscuring delicate cognitive glassware. Instead, [emotions] are more like the shelves underlying the glassware; without them cognition has less support" (p. 32). This image of emotions as the shelves that support cognition helps me to grasp the paramount importance that emotion plays in learning, convinces me that I cannot ignore, downplay, or work around the impact of emotion on cognition in my classroom (or elsewhere for that matter), and activates a strong desire in me to find and implement practices that will help my students build very sturdy shelves, able to support all sizes and shapes of cognitive glassware! Before we move on to discuss the insights gleaned from the intimate relationship between emotion and cognition, it would be worthwhile to briefly discuss the nature of emotion. Emotion is often thought of as simply how one feels, but it is much more complex and far-reaching than that. "Emotions, and the more biologically primitive drives that undergird them, such as hunger and sex, are action programs that have evolved as extensions of survival mechanisms" (p. 18, Immordino-Yang 2016). Emotions have evolved to keep us alive and are essential to managing life. Emotions are dynamic, social, and context-dependent. Though debate still exists regarding the categorization of emotions, Robinson (2009), based on a wide review of current theories, presented a table of 11 pairs of basic positive and negative emotions, categorized into six kinds of emotion (Table 1). Though terms could be added (or removed) from Table 1, Robinson's table is included herein to provide the reader with a taxonomical overview of basic emotions. We only think deeply about the things we care about (p. 18). Helping students care about what they are learning is both difficult and complex, but "it appears to be essential for the development of truly useful, transferable, intrinsically motivated learning" (p. 20). In the April 2017 JFSE editorial (Schmidt 2017), we touched upon a few ideas to intentionally guide students to form an emotional connection with the subject matter, but much more is needed. Helping students to emotionally connect with the thinking of our discipline (for example, chemistry thinking, microbiological thinking, engineering thinking, and so on) is a whole different level of connectedness than simply liking a topic or liking to come to class. Sharing with our students the critical importance of being emotionally connected to (for example, being interested in, caring about, and so on) what they are learning to make what they are learning meaningful and useful, however, may be the first right step. As stated by Immordino-Yang (2016), "evidence suggests that meaningful learning is actually about helping students to connect their isolated algorithmic skills to abstract, intrinsically emotional, subjective and meaningful experiences" (p. 20). Emotions are not add-ons that are distinct from cognitive skills, but rather become a dimension of the cognitive skill itself (p. 21). This insight brings both good and bad news. If the emotion connected to the cognitive skill is positive (for example, interest), then the skill will be enhanced (this is the good news); however, if the emotion connected to the cognitive skill is negative (for example, fear), then the skill will be encumbered (this is the bad news). The good news helps explain how interest can result in a lifetime commitment to research a focused topic (and as a Professor of Food Chemistry for 30 years, I can relate to this!). The bad news helps explain the feelings of anxiety, tension, and/or fear some students express when faced with learning math or chemistry, for example. However, there is a bright side to this bad news: emotions, like cognition, develop with maturity and experience and, as such, can be thought of as skills; and skills can be developed, improved, and changed. Not an easy task, but a doable one. Minimizing the emotional aspect of learning may be encouraging students to develop the sorts of knowledge that inherently do not transfer well to real-world situations (p. 39). Emotions are the shelves upon which the cognitive glassware is placed (recall the china shop analogy above). The knowledge gained needs emotional support to be made useful and applicable in the real world. This insight may play a key role in helping mitigate a longstanding educational problem – the lack of knowledge transfer from one course to another (within and across disciplines) and from school to the real world. In this regard, Immordino-Yang (2016) calls for additional, interdisciplinary research so that we can begin leveraging the relationship between emotion and cognition in the design of learning environments that engender the needed emotional support. As I continue my exploration (and reading of the book "Emotions, Learning, and the Brain"), my intent is to collect and create ways to effectively incorporate the emotional aspect of learning in my courses (and share them in my future editorials!). I know it will be an endeavor worth the labor; because I care about my students, I think deeply about how to provide them with the best possible educational experiences. In turn, this deep thinking and the benefits it brings to my students gives me (and I hope them) great joy!