Emotions at school: an obstacle or an encouragement to learning?

Abstract

Emotions and cognition have long been treated as separate processes in psychology. Emotions were considered a distractor of rational processes, and it was endeavoured, especially at school, to reduce the influence of emotions to the lowest level possible. However, the contemporary research in the field of neurobiology and psychology states the complete opposite - that emotions and cognition are inextricably bound. Every kind of learning has an emotional grounding, while the emotional processes are necessary in order to utilise any kind of knowledge in everyday life. The first part of the current paper provides an overview of the studies dealing with the influence of emotions on the learning process, perception, attention, memory, critical thinking and motivation. In the second part of the paper, we speak about emotions in the educational context, and in the third about the implications of the studies dealing with emotions for education. The new insights into the relation between the emotional and cognitive processes inevitably have a bearing on the process of teaching and learning, as well as on teacher education. It is necessary to raise teachers' awareness of the importance of emotions in education and the consequent professional commitments and tasks as early as in the stage of pre-service education.