One of the most important body parts is the brain and among the functions of the brain, I guess, the emotion is the most marvelous ability; maybe it is not notable because emotion has a great role in our lives and control us. Given this, it is only fair to make such claim. Christian Gerlach, who works in Learning Lab Denmark said; when the 'cognitive revolution' began three decades ago, emotions were not given much attention, however, in the last ten to fifteen years, this picture has clearly changed and increasing number of studies are examining the role of emotions on nearly all aspects of everyday cognition. Especially I want to talk about the role of emotion in education. In fact, Robert Sylvester said that 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.
Before we think about how emotion is related to education, let's think about the history of learning and psychology which help us to understand it. Learning has changed from the perspective of psychology. (Brian Butterworth) Think about B. F. Skinner's behaviorism, at the beginning of the last century behaviorism came to the fore of scientific investigations. The first behaviorists considered the brain an uninteresting black box, from which the only interesting output was the behavior; where, in the final analysis, subjective experience can be described simply as patterns by providing proper reward and punishment is administered.
From this viewpoint, there has been a lot of educational reinforcement; incentives to make students study hard. Students got punishment for bad grades or disreputable practices while they were praised for the better grade or the done thing. It may have a temporary impact on the student's behavior, however, to a large extent behaviorists misguided teachers to think that conditioning can describe all learning processes in the human brain. A lot of studies trying to prove behaviorism failed and much learning started to depend on internal motivation and emotion rather than external reward. Such old-fashioned educational approach also have been changed following that current.
We have learned the changed perception of emotion and the style of education which had changed following the history of psychology. Then, it's turned to discover how emotion and learning are related. Cognitive neuroscience has demonstrated a relationship between emotion and learning.
1. Emotions play a regulatory role in memory consolidation. In other words, the atmosphere in which students get knowledge is important for knowledge acquisition. Various observations discovered that people can remember emotionally arousing events more vividly than others. According to Denis Pare, BLA(basolateral complex of amygdala; the basolateral complex consists of the lateral, basal and accessory-basal nuclei of the amygdala) facilitates memory consolidation in a wide variety of emotionally arousing tasks, whether their affective valence is positive or negative. In addition, some experts (Reinhard Pekrun) argue that the idea that positive emotions always have positive effects and negative emotions always have negative effects is not correct. Certain negative emotions such as anxiety, shame, and anger can enhance performance in specific cases.
2. Emotion bias our cognitive information processing style. Petra C. Schmid mentioned that affect-as-information theory (Clore et al., 2001; Schwarz, 1990) suggests that people in a sad mood process information more deliberately and search for specific information before making a judgment. People in a happy mood use a more automatic or heuristic information processing style and judgments are made on the basis of an overall impression.
3. According to Christian Gerlach, emotion constitutes a vital part of decision making, even when it is based on rational cost-benefit analysis. The unique social information conveyed by each discrete emotion. In decision making, individuals use interdependent others' emotional expressions to make sense of ambiguous and uncertain social situations, and the cooperative or competitive nature of the social situation fundamentally influences the interpersonal effects of emotions.
We can reason that using both positive emotions and negative emotions in class is more helpful for effective learning than normal teaching method. It will be better for teachers to control student's mood depending on the situation.
Teachers can cause certain emotions in various ways. These following factors that are under the control of educators likely are important for the development of students' emotions (Reinhard Pekrun; Zeidler).
First, improve students' perceived control. Lack of structure, clarity, and excessive task demands are factors that enhance students' anxiety. Therefore, you should structure instructions well and explain clearly. By implication, adaptive student emotions likely can be fostered, and maladaptive emotions reduced, by raising the cognitive quality of instruction.
Second, support autonomy and self-regulated learning. Learning environments supporting students' self-regulated learning can be assumed to increase their sense of control and related positive emotions. In addition, such environments can foster positive emotions by meeting students' needs for autonomy. However, these beneficial effects probably depend on the match between students' competence and individual need for academic autonomy. In the case of a mismatch, loss of control and negative emotions can result. In short, teachers should attend to matching demands for autonomy to students' competencies and needs.
Third, set goal structures and achievement expectations carefully. Goal structures and grading practices determine students' opportunities for experiencing success and perceiving control, thus influencing their emotions. Specifically, competitive goal structures imply that some students experience success, whereas others have to experience failure, thus increasing levels of anxiety and hopelessness. Therefore, educators should adapt expectancy to students' competencies and should refrain from using goal structures that induce individual competition between students.
Finally, give feedback and consequences of achievement. Research suggests that cumulative failure feedback is a major factor underlying students' test anxiety (Zeidner, 1998). Success experiences likely strengthen perceived control and related positive emotions, whereas repeated failure can undermine subjective control and, therefore, instigate negative emotions. In addition, the perceived consequences of success and failure are important. Positive future-related student emotions can be increased if academic success is seen to produce beneficial long-term outcomes (such as future occupational chances). Negative outcomes of academic failure, by contrast, can increase students' achievement-related anxiety and hopelessness. By implication, providing success experiences, defining mistakes as opportunities for learning rather than as a personal failure, and linking attainment to beneficial outcomes also is important for helping students to develop adaptive emotions.
Given these facts, teachers can lead the proper feeling for effective learning.
In practicing these instructions, you should pay attention when you try to arouse emotions. Quite some students have a negative attitude toward learning when they have experienced failure in learning. In addition, the mere prospect of being asked to read aloud in class is enough to freeze some kids, rather than to understand the text. These children are likely to develop a phobia and prevalence of anxiety of depression that lead to late development. In contrast, too much positive mood can lead students to be too much optimistic. I said that both positive and negative feelings are necessary, but it doesn't mean that all kinds of emotions are good at learning. Therefore, you must be aware of the consequences of the way you teach.
The strong effects of emotion have been proving for many other aspects. However, some people would wonder that can teachers lead the emotions of students. Many people would say not; we even cannot control emotion ourselves. It is because they think of emotion as arising out of the blue, unbidden, with a life of its own. How could one will oneself to feel love, happiness, or any other emotion? It would seem that emotions are just not the kinds of things that can be willed into existence. However, according to the James Gross, it becomes concerned when we try to imagine a single person regulating his or her emotions. In this case, we should consider the interaction between brain systems and we should distinguish the subject that controls the emotion from the subject which is controlled emotion. However, if something is being regulated, it isn't much of a mystery because the subjects are explicit. Consider a teacher who calls an out-of-control child in the classroom. The teacher can change the atmosphere of the class from disturbance to calmness, and it affects the mood of the children. Although all of the children's feelings were not changed, emotional contagion(the tendency for two individuals to emotionally converge) can occur. The other way to change the students' feelings that can be explained by using emotional contagion and observational learning is that teachers' enthusiasm can facilitate students' adoption of positive emotions. Emotional contagion occurs not only among students, but also between teacher and student. According to the research on emotional contagion in the classroom(Timothy P. Motet, Steven A. Bebe), students' emotional responses are positively related to the perceived emotional responses of their instructor. To sum up, we can control the emotions; the emotions can be also controlled by teachers and others can lead proper feelings for effective learning by manipulating atmosphere and intending to emotional contagion.
2. Emotion bias our cognitive information processing style. Petra C. Schmid mentioned that affect-as-information theory (Clore et al., 2001; Schwarz, 1990) suggests that people in a sad mood process information more deliberately and search for specific information before making a judgment. People in a happy mood use a more automatic or heuristic information processing style and judgments are made on the basis of an overall impression.
3. According to Christian Gerlach, emotion constitutes a vital part of decision making, even when it is based on rational cost-benefit analysis. The unique social information conveyed by each discrete emotion. In decision making, individuals use interdependent others' emotional expressions to make sense of ambiguous and uncertain social situations, and the cooperative or competitive nature of the social situation fundamentally influences the interpersonal effects of emotions.
We can reason that using both positive emotions and negative emotions in class is more helpful for effective learning than normal teaching method. It will be better for teachers to control student's mood depending on the situation.
Teachers can cause certain emotions in various ways. These following factors that are under the control of educators likely are important for the development of students' emotions (Reinhard Pekrun; Zeidler).
First, improve students' perceived control. Lack of structure, clarity, and excessive task demands are factors that enhance students' anxiety. Therefore, you should structure instructions well and explain clearly. By implication, adaptive student emotions likely can be fostered, and maladaptive emotions reduced, by raising the cognitive quality of instruction.
Second, support autonomy and self-regulated learning. Learning environments supporting students' self-regulated learning can be assumed to increase their sense of control and related positive emotions. In addition, such environments can foster positive emotions by meeting students' needs for autonomy. However, these beneficial effects probably depend on the match between students' competence and individual need for academic autonomy. In the case of a mismatch, loss of control and negative emotions can result. In short, teachers should attend to matching demands for autonomy to students' competencies and needs.
Third, set goal structures and achievement expectations carefully. Goal structures and grading practices determine students' opportunities for experiencing success and perceiving control, thus influencing their emotions. Specifically, competitive goal structures imply that some students experience success, whereas others have to experience failure, thus increasing levels of anxiety and hopelessness. Therefore, educators should adapt expectancy to students' competencies and should refrain from using goal structures that induce individual competition between students.
Finally, give feedback and consequences of achievement. Research suggests that cumulative failure feedback is a major factor underlying students' test anxiety (Zeidner, 1998). Success experiences likely strengthen perceived control and related positive emotions, whereas repeated failure can undermine subjective control and, therefore, instigate negative emotions. In addition, the perceived consequences of success and failure are important. Positive future-related student emotions can be increased if academic success is seen to produce beneficial long-term outcomes (such as future occupational chances). Negative outcomes of academic failure, by contrast, can increase students' achievement-related anxiety and hopelessness. By implication, providing success experiences, defining mistakes as opportunities for learning rather than as a personal failure, and linking attainment to beneficial outcomes also is important for helping students to develop adaptive emotions.
Given these facts, teachers can lead the proper feeling for effective learning.
In practicing these instructions, you should pay attention when you try to arouse emotions. Quite some students have a negative attitude toward learning when they have experienced failure in learning. In addition, the mere prospect of being asked to read aloud in class is enough to freeze some kids, rather than to understand the text. These children are likely to develop a phobia and prevalence of anxiety of depression that lead to late development. In contrast, too much positive mood can lead students to be too much optimistic. I said that both positive and negative feelings are necessary, but it doesn't mean that all kinds of emotions are good at learning. Therefore, you must be aware of the consequences of the way you teach.
The strong effects of emotion have been proving for many other aspects. However, some people would wonder that can teachers lead the emotions of students. Many people would say not; we even cannot control emotion ourselves. It is because they think of emotion as arising out of the blue, unbidden, with a life of its own. How could one will oneself to feel love, happiness, or any other emotion? It would seem that emotions are just not the kinds of things that can be willed into existence. However, according to the James Gross, it becomes concerned when we try to imagine a single person regulating his or her emotions. In this case, we should consider the interaction between brain systems and we should distinguish the subject that controls the emotion from the subject which is controlled emotion. However, if something is being regulated, it isn't much of a mystery because the subjects are explicit. Consider a teacher who calls an out-of-control child in the classroom. The teacher can change the atmosphere of the class from disturbance to calmness, and it affects the mood of the children. Although all of the children's feelings were not changed, emotional contagion(the tendency for two individuals to emotionally converge) can occur. The other way to change the students' feelings that can be explained by using emotional contagion and observational learning is that teachers' enthusiasm can facilitate students' adoption of positive emotions. Emotional contagion occurs not only among students, but also between teacher and student. According to the research on emotional contagion in the classroom(Timothy P. Motet, Steven A. Bebe), students' emotional responses are positively related to the perceived emotional responses of their instructor. To sum up, we can control the emotions; the emotions can be also controlled by teachers and others can lead proper feelings for effective learning by manipulating atmosphere and intending to emotional contagion.
Students learn and teachers should help students learn in the most effective way. They can do it by using emotions of students. Teachers can lead the emotions for effective learning. There are several ways to arouse proper emotion for the best learning. That's what teachers should keep in mind. In the past, teachers used to give some incentives to students to enhance their motives and performance. However, many experiments have proved that students learning is not related to external reward, but it is related to internal reward. In addition, it is a recent trend that scientists are paying attention to the power of emotion and it is time for teachers to change. Consider this; why same student does work well, some day while he or she performs some day poorly? The degree of study of a student is not always same because learning depends on emotion. Emotions play a regulatory role in memory consolidation and information processing style. And of course it has an effect on concentration and motivation as we basically know. Do not worry whether you can lead the emotion of the other people. Emotion, the basic facts of human, is a feeling such as happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred, which can be caused by the situation that you are in or the people you are with. It means that people(included you) can intend to change someone's emotion. You might be embarrassed when the students don't concentrate on their work and your lesson. Use these instructions in your class, and you don't have to worry anymore. Try to catch students' emotions and follow the instructions, it is the best way to help children to save time otherwise they spend uselessly, growing effectiveness of learning. How easy it is to become a great teacher!
References
Brian Butterworth, Anna Bevan (2004). Understanding and emotion in mathematics learning
Robert Sylwester (1994). How Emotions Affect Learning
Skinner, B.F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: an experimental analysis
Denis Pare (2003). Role of the basolateral amygdala in memory consolidation
Reinhard Pekrun (2009). Student Emotions
Moshe Zeidner (2013). Test anxiety; The state of the Art
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기