Unlocking Connections: Emotions and Academic Success

Unlocking Connections: Emotions and Academic Success Presented by Charlotte Weinstein Course EDUC 5380 Digital Media & Curriculum Integration

Read the statement and decide if it’s true or false. It is vital for teachers to understand the connection between emotions and academic success. • False • True http://www.brainybetty.com/powerpoint1.htm

Sorry That was the wrong answer http://www.brainybetty.com/powerpoint1.htm

Correct ! Congratulations http://www.brainybetty.com/powerpoint1.htm

Emotions: Physiological manifestations affecting humans both externally and internally. • Learning, thinking and memory takes place in the cortex involving the limbic system • Emotions and behavior receive direction and interpretation from the limbic system • The interpretation of information determines whether the message is negative or positive: negative “shuts down” the pathway to learning and positive “opens” the pathway to learning • Emotions arise from memories: Dr. Seligman says “our thoughts and beliefs are our reality…it’s not what happens to us but what we think about what happens to us, that counts.” • Thoughts and emotions affect motivation http://www.cdl.org/resourcelibrary/articles/connect_emotions.php

Positive feelings toward information, enables students to use what they know motivating them to extend their knowledge beyond the classroom. • Need to be emotionally involved and engaged in the learning process; this encourages motivation and desire to learn. • Novelty-seeking element within the human brain facilitates learning- needs stimulus • Positive emotions affect the decision making process • Positive feelings empowers students to broaden their knowledge and potentially create new knowledge http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm

By having short alternative and interactive activities during instruction, students will learn more. • False • True http://www.brainybetty.com/powerpoint1.htm

Emotional Intelligence • Knowing our emotions – self awareness • Managing our emotions – impulse control • Motivating ourselves to achieve goals – persistence and self-motivation • Recognizing emotions in others – empathy • Managing relationships with others – social skills Teachers directly influence: • Emotional intelligence is learnednor inherited like general intelligence • Emotional intelligence can be nurtured, directed and strengthened . http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/teaching-values/751-the-role-of-emotions-in-learning.gs?page=1

Affective Teaching: Creating a positive and stimulating environment to engage emotions among our students. • Teachers provide opportunities for students to change their negative associations into positive ones. • Draw on connection to their students’ everyday lives when presenting new information; use of connections conveys a sense of awareness, acknowledgement and acceptance of the students from the teacher. • Use appropriate humor from time to time • Help learners see how new information connects with what they already know • Conduct learning in nontraditional settings http://www.affectiveteaching.com/?p=151 http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/8430

One way to address emotions in education is through art and literature. • False • True http://www.brainybetty.com/powerpoint1.htm

Engaging Emotions in Muticultural Education • Not all cultures interpret emotional experiences the same way. • Teachers themselves, must engage their own emotions in order to engage emotions among their students. • Use of autobiographies, films, plays and other forms of art can be catalysts in the emotional growth and stimulus among students. • Guiding students through emotional difficulties, may empower students to be less resistant to learn “new or different” ways of thinking. Hongyu Wang. Multicultural Perspectives, 2008, Vol. 10 Issue 1, p10-16, 7p, 1 Chart; DOI: 10.1080/15210960701869330

Engaging Emotions in Education: Begin Now • Explore many innovative ways to employ technology with students • Have a variety of ethnic and cultural books, posters, etc. in the classroom • Bring in community and neighborhood leaders into the classroom: students ask questions on a variety of topics • Student experts: Students explore their passions and teach their peers http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/teaching-values/751-the-role-of-emotions-in-learning.gs?page=1

References Anonymous. (2007, February 21). Why emotions cannot be separated from learning. Retrieved from http://www.affectiveteaching.com/?p=151 Bronwell, C., & Eison, J. (1991). Active learning: creating excitement in the classroom. ERIC Clearing House on Higher Education, Retrieved from http://www.oid.ucla.edu/about/units/tatp/old/lounge/pedagogy/downloads/active-learning-eric.pdf Elias, M. (2003). Academic and social-emotional learning. Educational Practicies Series-11, 1-29. Retrieved from http://www.mp.gov.rs/resursi/dokumenti/dok190-eng-IBE_academic_and_socioemotional_learning.pdf

References (continued) Hongyu, W. (2008). "Red Eyes": Engaging Emotions in Multicultural Education. Multicultural Perspectives, 10(1), 10-16. doi:10.1080/15210960701869330 Vail, P. (2011). The role of emotions in learning. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/teaching-values/751-the-role-of-emotions-in-learning.gs?page=1

Websites • http://www.affectiveteaching.com/?p=151 • http://learningforlife.fsu.edu/ctl/explore/onlineresources/docs/Chptr8.pdf • http://www.brainybetty.com/powerpoint1.htm • http://www.oid.ucla.edu/about/units/tatp/old/lounge/pedagogy/downloads/active-learning-eric.pdf • http://www.mp.gov.rs/resursi/dokumenti/dok190-engIBE_academic_and_socioemotional_learning.pdf • http://www.cartoonstock.com • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhpWh86csvg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChq5drjQl4

Unlocking Connections: Emotions and Academic Success