This document discusses emotions and their connection to learning. It begins by noting that emotions are key to possibilities and barriers in learning. It then explores the roots of human emotions and different approaches to understanding emotional responses to experiences. It discusses how learning is an emotional experience as much as an intellectual one. Several sections then delve into topics like fast and slow thinking in the brain, communicating feelings, emotion and experiential learning, emotional intelligence, anxiety/fear/stress, different emotions, moods, overcoming fear, and using humor. The overall message is that emotions are deeply tied to the learning process but have often been neglected, and understanding emotions can help improve learning outcomes.

1. EXPERIENCE AND EMOTIONS
The feeling dimension
Reporter: Domingo Joseph Langa, Jr.
ED 628

2. Emotions and feelings are
the key pointers both to
possibilities for, and
barriers to, learning
(Miller & Boud, 1996)

3. Objectives
 Find out where the roots of human emotions
are;
 Discover feelings and needs;
 Understand practical approaches to create
space for people to consider their emotional
response to an experience;
 Take a brief look at a range of new and old
ideas that enhance positive change in people.

4. To what degree is learning
an emotional experience as
much as it is an
intellectual one?

5.  Historically, the expression of emotion has
been associated with weakness and
irrationality, and frowned upon in many
institutions, yet emotions are inextricably
linked to learning and development.
 Emotions and feelings are the ones which are
most neglected in our society: there is almost
a taboo about them intruding into our
education institutions, particularly at higher
levels (Boud, Cohen &Walker, 1993)
Introduction

6. Introduction
 Emotional aptitude can help access and
surface unconscious feelings, to control
negative thoughts and anger, and to reduce
conflict.
 Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can contribute to
an improved life: through improved
communication, increased team moral at
work, more collaborative working, less
energy waste on politicking and game, thus
reducing poor attitude or indifference.

7. Introduction
 EckhartTolle (2006) suggests that emotions
are the body’s reaction to the mind, or a
reflection of the mind in the body.
 Emotions arise at the place where the mind
and body meet: bodily emotions will give a
truthful reflection of the mind.
 Becoming aware of and understanding
emotions, and the shifting emotional
dynamics of learners is a difficult but
necessary skill for coaching or facilitating.

8. Fast thinking
 The emotional response to incoming data is
subject to long-established neuronal
connections in the brain.
 When people see, hear,
smell, or feel something,
the sensory information is
doubled up. One set of
information is speedily
sent along a short circuit
to the amygdala of the
brain, through split-
second responses. This is
fast thinking, system 1.

9. Fast thinking
 The emotional response to incoming data is
subject to long-established neuronal
connections in the brain.
 This amygdala is in fact
the storehouse for
emotional memories,
and so a major source of
instant reactions and gut
feelings.

10. Slow thinking
 The other set of
information is
logically analyzed and
reflected upon
elsewhere, sent down
by the slower route to
the area known as the
neocortex.This is
system 2, or slow
thinking.

11. Three Brains in Humans
 The functioning brain is found at the base area
where the spinal cord ends. It is reptilian-like,
managing the automatic functions such as
heartbeat, breathing, and temperature
regulation.
 The feeling brain also called the middle brain is
higher up and responsible for engaging fast
emotional reactions.
 The thinking brain is advanced and particularly
developed in humans, consisting of cerebral
frontal lobes doing more complex, slower
processing.

12. Communicating with Feeling
 Rosenburg (2003) suggests that we can improve
relationships and create more harmony if we
learn to separate observing from judging by
using non-violent communication (NVC).
 Applying a four-stage model:
 Observing (without evaluating)
 Understanding how we feel in relation to what we
observe
 Understanding the feelings
 The ability to make requests that might enrich our
lives.

13. Emotion and Experiential
Learning
 Crosby (1995) suggests that “we find
ourselves in continual transaction with the
physical, psychological, mental, spiritual
world, and philosophy.” There should be a
systematic investigation into the nature of
this experience.
 It is frequently the case with traditional
education and training that emphasis is
placed upon cognitive and intellectual
considerations.

14. Emotion and Experiential
Learning
 In order for any experience to be interpreted as
positive, learners require a number of
constructive attributes, including confidence in
their abilities and self-esteem in order to
recognize the validity of their own views and
those of others.
 The affective domain can be seen to provide the
underlying foundation for all learning.
 Postle (1993) quoting Heron: “Valid knowledge-
knowledge that is well grounded-depends upon
its emergence out of openness to feeling.”

15. Emotion and Experiential
Learning
 Langer as quoted by Postle: “The entire
psychological field, including conception,
responsible action, rationality and knowledge
is a vast and branching development of
feeling.”

16. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
 Bagshaw (2000) defines EQ as “the ability to use
your understanding of emotions, in yourself and
others, to deal effectively with people and
problems in a way which reduces anger and
hostility, develops collaborative effort, enhances
life balance and produces creative energy.”
 Goleman (1996) argued that having a high EQ
was a different way of being smart, and his focus
was on the emotional competence required to be
a star performer.

17. Anxiety, Fear and Stress
 Fineman (1997) lists the work of many
influential writers on the subject of the
debilitating nature that anxiety, fear, and
stress have in interfering with learning.
 He notes that emotions are seen as
“unwanted” and “undesirable” in the rational,
logical workplace.

18. Emotions
 We experience an array of emotions,
although researchers continue to debate
which emotions might be of a primary nature.
 Goleman (1996) reports primary candidates
as anger, fear, shame, sadness, enjoyment,
surprise, love and disgust.
 Some primary emotions, such as fear, have
an important impact on learning.

19. Moods a Subset of Emotions
 Moods are not the same as emotions, but they
do not have a great deal in common with them.
 Moods are sometimes defined as less intense
and longer lasting than emotions, although this
lower intensity isn’t true in the case of serious
depression (Thayer, 1996).
 Thayer regards the central dimensions of mood
as a balance of energy and tension. Mood
indicates a greater tendency to do certain things.

20. The Power of the Emotional
State
 Morris (1998) suggests
that the object of any
struggle is to
experience optimum
stimulation.
 Adler (2000) suggests
that: Being is the
ultimate goal type.To
be happy, content, or
fulfilled is as near as
we get to understand
human desire.

21. Experience, Learning and
Identity
 All learning is grounded in prior experience.
 The past consists of banked emotional
experiences, and these can both drive
forward and restrict new learning from
experience.
 Attributing an experience with a positive or
negative emotional interpretation may
influence the degree and type of learning.

22. Experience, Learning and
Identity
 Postle (1993) describes three kinds of learning
that inhibit us:
 Omitted learning – lack of love in an upbringing,
which results in a person being unable to receive
or give love;
 Distorted learning – can occur when a person is
told that he or she is hopeless, not talented, etc.;
 Distressed learning – learning that occurs with
distress in the form of forced learning and
compliance.

23. Experience, Learning and
Identity
 What we do at work is often significant
element of the description of our identity,
“what we do for a living”.
 Parr (2000) declares that the reason to return
to education was much about identity as it
was about paper qualification.

24. Overcoming Fear
 Emotions influence everyday behavior, and
they can have a distorting effect on learning.
 Fear is one of the strongest primary
emotions, which can be both conducive to
improved learning and toxic to learning.
 Fear is the result of powerful emotional
circuitry embedded in the brain resulting in a
conditioned response.

25. Overcoming Fear
 Being too much in control can result in being
out of control. Such fears need managing so
as to create balance. Learners with signs of
being “too perfect” might have:
 A fear of making errors;
 A fear of making the wrong decision or choice;
 A strong devotion to work;
 A need for order and a firm routine;
 Emotional guardedness;
 A tendency to be stubborn or oppositional

26. Overcoming Fear
 A heightened sensitivity to being pressured or
controlled by others;
 A need to know and follow the rules;
 An inclination to worry, ruminate or doubt;
 A need to be above criticism – moral, professional,
or personal;
 A chronic inner pressure to use every minute
productively.
 (adapted from Mallinger and De Wyze, 1993)

27. Overcoming Fear
 The suppression of fear, a fear of the truth, of
how it actually is, is a reason for much misguided
behavior, especially managerial actions at work
when there is reluctance to be honest, with other
people and one’s self.
 Learners do tend to talk more easily about any
emotional elements of experience in the past
tense rather than the here and now, but
experiential providers can encourage learners to
speak about their experience in the here and
now.

28. Using Humor and Other
Positive Emotions
 People can release excess emotions such as
anxiety through relaxation and fun.
 A sense of humor can be a powerful influence on
learning, and studying can become a form of
play.
 One reason for being interested in the role of
humor, as an emotion in learning was that we
wanted to encourage students to let go or their
obsession with grades and instead to access and
gain a greater understanding of underlying
emotions and feelings that influenced their
ability to learn.

29. That’s All Folks!