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Aubri Barsaleau Nancy Elliot English 111 November 6, 2013

The Effects of Emotion on Learning

What would the world be without emotion? Imagine life without laughing, having that sensation and joy of eating a burger, or even the feeling of watching a sunset with your best friend. Emotion colors everything in life, including a big aspect of learning. Learning could be compared to making a loaf of bread. There are many key ingredients that affect the quality of the loaf of bread. Yeast is one of those ingredients that permeates it to make the finishing results. It's much like emotion towards your mind and brain. It is a big aspect that affects all the outcomes of your thoughts and direction of thinking. When under stress my mind tends to direct my attention towards that stress factor. The fear of failure before taking a test or even the pressure of time on a homework project causes people to have unclear and unfocused mind sets. When I went through my grandfather's death, it was a distraction that led me away from learning during school. Instead I focused on that personal emotionally charged situation. Having emotional instability causes certain factors to become unstable in the learning environment. What makes up a person is the mind, body, emotions, will, and personality. These aspects are knit together, each one affecting the other. Brian Walsh's opinion of emotion is that it

interprets, directs, and summarizes information revived through the five senses. That "its a survival tool that permits us to experience joy, surprise, sadness, fear, disgust, or threat" (Walsh). On the other hand, having emotional stability enhances learning during school and increases motivation and ability. Prior knowledge is a key element in learning. I believe that past memories can change the way an individual views the world and the topics associated with it. In like manner, Candy Lawson stresses that memories of past events affect how we perceive things now. Emotions control how we interpret these past events. "Positive memories can build positive emotions, and therefore lead to a positive attitude toward learning. Conversely, negative memories or interpretations can lead to negative emotions and restrict the ability to learn" (Epsten). A negative memory can fill the rooms of the mind so much that there is little space for anything else. A certain topic, even in a classroom, can trigger a certain memory from the past and distract the students attention away from the information being taught. In this way, negative memories work like clutter in a room, they are distracting and unorganized. On the other hand, having positive memories and confidence toward a learning skill such as test taking for example, can influence the result by enabling the student to perform his or her very best. Linda Hammond and many other teachers from Stanford University also agreed that students learn and perform more successfully when they feel secure, happy, and excited about the subject matter. However, going into a test with an insecure and negative attitude can also affect the results by causing memory blocks and unclear focus.

A category of negative emotion is the lack of motivation that can be devastating to the learning process. An example of this would be a sport in which an athlete does poorly. They become less motivated to try their hardest and less likely to put forth maximum effort because of fear of failure. This would be true in the area of academics as well. Poor readers have a pessimistic view on their ability to succeed in this area and therefore have little motivation to improve. Since motivation is key in learning, emotions definitely affect that aspect. Candy Lawson, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Development and Learning explains that "students can be unmotivated because they are anxious or depressed. As a result, they have trouble concentrating in school and can't keep their mind on their work." These issues could cause problems in staying focused and make their "emotions affect or cause their negative thoughts" (Lawson). The types of thoughts act as a guide to our motivation, taking it down a variety of paths. If fear of failure and anxiety are the guides in control, it leads the learner down an unmotivated pathway. Anxiety is another emotional factor that can influence learning in education. The foundation of anxiety is fear. Each individual has a different stimulus which causes anxiety. These stimuli can include not getting homework done before the deadline, as mentioned earlier, test taking, social problems, bullying, health issues, lack of sleep, poor eating habits, and fear of not succeeding. An anxiety filled mind tends to supersede students' thoughts and removes them from school and academics. When I get anxious about a test or project my mind freezes and focusing on that particular thing is minimized. Anxiety causes more mistakes if it takes control. Another emotion that follows anxiety is depression. Depression is a type of darkness that can take over the mind. Lack of confidence and looking at the dark side of things

only increases depression. This emotion, according to Candy Lawson, causes a student to lose interest in activities or subjects that they used to enjoy. This emotion causes sadness and low self-esteem. "Children who are anxious or sad may complain of physical problems such as headaches or stomachaches when it is time to go to school, take a test or do homework. Many children miss school because of these complaints, which only serves to reinforce them as ways to avoid something unpleasant and increases school problems because of the time and material missed" (Lawson). Students learn better when they want to learn and therefore, depression is another block to this happening. Stress is probably the highest problem high school and college students have. Education itself is a stressful phase in life. There are tests, homework assignments, and projects due constantly, plus pressure from parents and teachers to excel. All these things combine to form this emotional state called stress. Brian Walsh discusses that stress is "cumulative, and the effects of substantial stress are dissipated only after a period of twelve to eighteen months." Katherine Weare, a health educator, agrees and stated that "stress does not necessarily come from the immediate environment, or is always reasonable and proportionate. A sense of stress can come from any sense of personal or emotional threat." Stress can overcome the mind with thoughts and feelings that could be but have not actually happened. Many students have to work jobs alongside attending an educational institution. Other factors that add to stress are things like social drama, family problems, relationship issues and so on. These emotional states of stressors block learning abilities.

There are other ways that emotions can interfere with learning. Immaturity can cause a carefree state of mind. Immaturity causes a lack of control. "If students are overly excited or enthusiastic, they might work carelessly or quickly rather than working methodically or carefully" (Hammond). The opposite side of this is being overly careful which can cause a different kind of problem. This could cause over thinking the material and second guessing oneself. Whether it's being everywhere at once or being over careful, they both cause problems in learning. Positive motivation influences a person to want to succeed and achieve a goal. Having a high self-esteem and confidence enhances reception of information and understanding of it as well. Inquisitiveness, peace of mind, and happiness are other positive emotions that influence learning by enabling the learner to focus in school. Having these states of emotion can cause learning to become internalized. Positive emotions can act as defoggers in the brain which make listening and attentiveness more worthwhile. Having positive thoughts will enhance our will to learn. Dean Traylor explained that one of the most important factors that deal with learning is the learner's willingness to do so. "If a student is eager or goal oriented, the likelihood is that student will learn. If not, the student may regurgitate the education to him or her but not retain it" (Traylor). Emotions that promote the willingness to learn are things like admiration, respect, pride, a sense of accomplishment and worth. Having a sense of accomplishment only makes a person want to achieve greater things and set higher goals. Having a competitive spirit could also lead to a desire to move up in a class, to get a scholarship, or to having the integrity and will to accomplish something great. Once a person has achieved a

position of recognition and accomplishment their will is strengthened and confidence increases to strive for higher goals. Emotions can definitely interfere or enhance learning in adults as well as students. Since it is impossible to remove negative emotions from human beings, perhaps instead students could be taught to manage their feelings in school to some extent. When doing any type of work a student will have to learn to control their emotions and do the job in spite of them. This applies also to doing school work, and school work itself trains a person to learn and process information in spite of their emotions they are feeling at the time. Many authors agreed that negative and positive emotions affect learning in different ways. Although this topic is a serious one, the fact that educators are now recognizing the importance of this issue is the beginning of a solution being found.