Brain Based Teaching & Learning: Reflection Part 3

By encouraging brain state changes in my classroom, my students will experience not only physiological benefits, but also a more positively charged emotional environment. Though not usually a first priority concern in the classroom, a student’s emotional comfort level has a direct effect on his or her brain’s ability to process and focus on new material. “Students must feel physically safe and emotionally secure before they can focus on the curriculum” (Sousa, 2006, p. 44). While I think I am usually rather perceptive to the emotional states of my students and I strive from the beginning of the year to create a positive learning environment and community based on respect in my classroom, I did not realize how much emotional states can affect learning. This knowledge all the more supports the time I spend in my class on building community and encourages me to be even more aware of how students view and interact with each other. While some of the self esteem boosters such as the “clam clap” and the “fantastic spray bottle” have been described as “touchy feely” by some, I can see the benefit of encouraging each other and even in the camaraderie that comes from being willing to look and act a little bit silly with each other. I’m still processing how comfortable I feel introducing similar practices with my high school students, but I am now more aware of the importance of building a safe and secure environment. In addition to literally putting the students in the “right state of mind” to learn, positive emotions keep students interested and encourage them to think more analytically and critically, where as negative or even neutral emotions of boredom or disinterest decrease attention span and willingness to engage (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). I am left with the question: So how to I get my students to “like” what they are learning? One way is to follow some of the “brain break” strategies previously described, but another important method is to encourage the students to make their own emotional and meaningful connections to the learning.

Emotion affects not only a student’s ability and willingness to focus on the learning process, but also his or her ability to attach meaning to learning and to build a network of synapses in long term storage in the brain. Wolfe strongly asserts that “Emotion is a primary catalyst in the learning process” (Wolfe, 2003, p. 13). Students are more willing to engage in and more likely to remember information and experiences with an emotional connection (Wolfe, 2003). If I really want my students to learn, I must encourage them to make emotional investments, which triggers the amygdala to stimulate the hippocampus to convert information to long term storage (Sousa, 2006). To encourage students to make emotional investments, I often use journaling and reflections throughout the learning process. After studying about the importance of closure, I now want to use journaling more as a closure technique to encourage students to process what they have learned and how it applies to other learning and other aspects of life. I also use personal stories, pop culture references, and real world events to help students relate their own lives and interests to the material. I have even found ways to make grammar more “emotional” by using some humorous examples about the importance of punctuation from Lynne Truss’s text Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. However, though I do consciously try to get the students emotionally engaged, I would like to make emotional connections more of a daily priority, as I have seen how crucial meaning is to learning.