Research 1

Source
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct94/vol52/num02/How-Emotions-Affect-Learning.aspx

My topic
How students' various emotions affect the lesson and how teachers lead the best feeling for effective learning?  

What I hope to learn from this source:
The evidence that emotions affect the class

Notes

How Emotions Affect Learning

Robert Sylwester

New developments in cognitive science are unraveling the mysteries of emotions; the findings have much to teach us about how students do—or do not—learn.

John Dewey began this century with an eloquent plea for the education of thewhole child. If we get around to that kind of education by the end of the century, emotion research may well provide the catalyst we need.

Our profession pays lip service to the whole student, but school activities tend to focus on measurable rational qualities. We measure spelling accuracy, not emotional well-being. And when the budget gets tight, we cut curricular areas like the arts, expressive subjects that are difficult to measure.

We know emotion is important in education—it drives attention, which in turn drives learning and memory. But because we don't fully understand our emotional system, we don't know exactly how to regulate it in school, beyond defining too much or too little emotion as misbehavior. We have rarely incorporated emotion comfortably into the curriculum and classroom. Further, our profession hasn't fully addressed the important relationship between a stimulating and emotionally positive classroom experience and the overall health of both students and staff.

Recent developments in the cognitive sciences are unlocking the mysteries of how and where our body/brain processes emotion. This unique melding of the biology and psychology of emotion promises to suggest powerful educational applications. Current emotion theory and research bring up more questions than answers. Still, educators should develop a basic understanding of the psychobiology of emotion to enable them to evaluate emerging educational applications.

Following is a basic introduction to the role our emotional system plays in learning, and the potential classroom applications of this research.

Classroom Applications

Although the educational applications of emotion research are still quite tentative, several general themes are emerging—and they tend to support a perspective that many educators have long advocated. This isn't surprising, since we're continually learning what does and doesn't work when dealing with students' emotions. What this research may provide, however, is biological support for the profession's beliefs.

Here are some general principles and their applications to the classroom:

1. Emotions simply exist; we don't learn them in the same way we learn telephone numbers, and we can't easily change them. But we should not ignore them. Students can learn how and when to use rational processes to override their emotions, or to hold them in check. We should seek to develop forms of self-control among students and staff that encourage nonjudgmental, nondisruptive (and perhaps even inefficient) venting of emotion that generally must occur before reason can take over. We all can recall past incidents that still anger us because we were not allowed to freely express our feelings before a decision was imposed on us.
   Integrating emotional expression in classroom life is not difficult. Try drawing a class into a tension-releasing circle (after a playground fight, for example) and playing a game of circle tag before talking out the problem. Once the students' collective limbic systems have had their say, rational cortical processes can settle the issue. If that doesn't work, sing a song. (As British playwright William Congreve suggested, “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast.”) In other words, when trying to solve a problem, continue the dialogue with continuous emotional input.
2. Most students already know quite a bit about the complexity of emotions and the ways they and others experience them (Saarni and Harris 1991), although they may not be able to articulate what they know. Schools should focus more on metacognitive activities that encourage students to talk about their emotions, listen to their classmates' feelings, and think about the motivations of people who enter their curricular world. For example, the simple use of why in a question turns the discussion away from bare facts and toward motivations and emotions. Why did the pioneers settle where the two rivers came together? is a much more emotionally loaded question than Where did the pioneers settle?
3. Activities that emphasize social interaction and that engage the entire body tend to provide the most emotional support. Games, discussions, field trips, interactive projects, cooperative learning, physical education, and the arts are examples. Although we've long known that such activities enhance student learning, we tend to think of them as special rewards, and so withdraw them when students misbehave, or when budgets are tight, eliminate them altogether.
4. Memories are contextual. School activities that draw out emotions—simulations, role playing, and cooperative projects, for example—may provide important contextual memory prompts that will help students recall the information during closely related events in the real world. This is why we tend to practice fire drills in an unannounced, emotionally charged setting: in the event of a real fire, students will have to perform in that kind of setting.
5. Emotionally stressful school environments are counterproductive because they can reduce students' ability to learn. Self-esteem and a sense of control over one's environment are important in managing stress. Highly evaluative and authoritarian schools may promote institutional economy, efficiency, and accountability, but also heighten nonproductive stress in students and staff.

In short, we need to think of students as more than mere brain tissue and bodies. Powerful peptides convert that body and brain tissue into a vibrant life force—the whole child that John Dewey urged us to educate.

Final Thoughts

Now I know the emotion affects learning. I will find more information about the various effect of different emotions.