Education: Emotional, Cultural, and Social Learning

How do emotions affect learning, and how does the classroom affect emotions?

Emotions influence how a student reacts, receives, and processes information. Emotions can actually interfere with learning by creating nervousness towards schoolwork, evoking responses towards activity going on in the classroom, and influencing how well the student can balance emotion with schoolwork. What other students are doing, how the teacher is interacting with other students, how a student performed on a task, and the overall environment of the classroom can trigger a student's emotions and interfere with learning. On the other hand, emotions can positively impact learning when the emotions are positive and well balanced. It can give a student more security and assurance of their abilities during the task(s).

How can teachers foster emotional intelligence and create emotionally safe classroom environments?

Teachers can help students learn how to manage their feelings and frustrations when such emotions arise. Students can learn how to handle and process their feelings in constructive ways. Disputes can be redirected or talked out rather than allowed to fester and increase. I had a teacher who would pass out our tests and quizzes at the end of class so that we wouldn't be discouraged or distracted from learning the lesson for that day.

The Classroom Mosaic - Culture and Learning

What role does culture play in learning?

Culture plays a big part in learning when considering disadvantage minorities. These groups most likely do not have equal access to resources and teachers. An inequality in education is created because of these limitations. Culture in the school can negatively effect learning if it makes a group of students feel isolated and unwanted.

How can teachers develop culturally responsive practices?

Content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, developing a powerful school culture, "teaching in ways that counter the lack of information and misinformation," and "encouraging teachers and students to reflect on their own attitudes,biases,and practices in their lives and in the classroom" are all different ways that teachers can develop culturally responsive practices. Teachers can create a classroom environment that is respectful of the differences of cultures amongst students and having the students realize that they all bring value to the class with their input and ideas. An example of how each student should treat one another in the classroom can be set at the very beginning so that it becomes the standard amongst the students.

Learning from Others - Learning in a Social Context

How do people learn in social contexts?

People learn by speech, from others who model behavior, interactions, and more. In a classroom setting, students can learn from other students as well as the teacher.

How can teachers develop communities of learning?

Vygotskian suggested that it is important to have teachers and students working together, developing a literacy standard, drawing connections from the classroom to the personal lives of the students, encouraging complex thinking through teaching, and letting students have conversations directed by themselves. Teachers should completely understand the principle of using learning in the classroom to add to the knowledge the students already have from their own families, hence building communities of learning.