How to Harness Knowledge Emotions in the Classroom
“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”
We humans are emotional creatures at heart and our emotions can run the gamut and change with the wind. Knowing how to harness the wind and knowledge emotions can be very helpful for producing energy and learning respectively.
The four knowledge emotions are surprise, interest, confusion, and awe. These emotions help students open their minds to learning.
Surprise:
The element of surprise works like a charm to engage students. It is when students face a new situation or scenario with an unexpected twist that they did not see coming. Science teachers can use surprise while doing lab experiments. English teachers can harness surprise through plot twists. The list goes on. Try enveloping elements of surprise or prediction in your lessons and see how much student engagement increases.
Interest:
When students express interest in a subject, it means that they are ready to learn it from all angles. The problem lies when a student lacks interest for a variety of reasons. When designing lessons, it is important to connect the learning to real world applicability, to jobs that have not even been invented yet, to being successful in the future, and so on to gain student interest.
Confusion:
Confusion can be a great learning technique, but it requires careful observation and stepping in to help clear up confusion to real learning. We need as a society to reframe failure as a good thing, as a necessary step to learning, to persevere and keep powering through to reach the learning goal or intention, and to teach students how to retrace their steps to learn what they did wrong and come up with new ideas to solve complex problems.
Awe:
Awe is that light bulb or aha moment when a student makes that new connection. It happens when an idea is all encompassing and when it is uncommon. Awe inspiring moments make life worth living. it is also a wonderful tool for learning. It is, unfortunately, also the hardest to make happen on a daily basis, but when it does happen, it is like magic.
For more information, check out the book Student Learning Communities.