Emotions and Learning

January 12, 2004

Background

• Four most common emotions appearing on theorists’ list are fear, anger, sadness, and joy

• Plutchik (1980) distinguishes among eight basic emotions: fear, anger, sorrow, joy, disgust, acceptance, anticipation, and surprise

More Background

• Ekman (1992) has focused on a set of from six to eight basic emotions

• However none of the existing frameworks address emotions commonly seen in SMET learning (Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology)

Emotions and Learning Cycle

III

IVIII

Constructive learning

Un-learning

Positive AffectNegative Affect

Awe Satisfaction Curiosity

HopefulnessFresh Research

Disappointment Puzzlement Confusion

Frustration Discard Misconceptions

Path of the Cycle

• Student ideally begins in quadrant I or II– In quadrant one the student might be curious

or fascinated about a new topic of interest– In quadrant two the student might be puzzled

and motivated to reduce confusion– In either case the student begins in the top half

of the space, if their focus is on constructing or testing knowledge

Path of the Cycle (Cont.)

• Quadrant Three– Deconstruction of knowledge

– Emotions may be negative

– cognitive focus on elimination of misconceptions

– As the student consolidates his/her knowledge with awareness of a sense of making progress, he or she may move to quadrant four

Path of the Cycle (Cont.)

• Quadrant Four– Recovers hopefulness as knowledge set is now

cleared of unworkable and unproductive concepts

– Getting a fresh idea propels the student back to the upper half of the diagram, most likely in quadrant one

5 Candidate Axes

• Anxiety-Confidence

• Boredom-Fascination

• Frustration-Euphoria

• Dispirited-Encouraged

• Terror-Enchantment

Emotion Sets Possibly Relevantto Learning

-1.0 -0.5 0 +0.5 +1.0

Anxiety Worry Discomfort Comfort Hopeful Confident

Ennui Boredom Indifference Interest Curiosity Intrigue

Frustration Puzzlement Confusion Insight Enlightenment Epiphany

Dispirited Disappointment Dissatisfaction Satisfied Thrilled EnthusiasticTerror Dread Apprehension Calm Anticipatory Excited

The Emotion Axis

• A Model of Emotions• Could be one of the specific axes from

previous slide• Could symbolize the n-vector of all

relevant emotion axes (allowing multi-dimensional combinations of emotions)

• Positive valence emotions on the right; negative valence emotions on the left

Knowledge Axis

• A third axis (not shown) is called the knowledge axis– Extending out of the plane of the page– When this third dimension is added, one

obtains an excelsior spiral when evolving/developing knowledge

– Learner may experience multiple cycles, gradually moving up the knowledge axis

Any Questions??