What Does Emotion Have to Do with Learning? Everything!

Abstract

“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 readingi 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).