Relationships: Learning can't happen without them
I know that no matter what you teach, or where, or whom, relationship is the foundation of all teaching and learning.
Learning to read means figuring out the relationships between shapes and sounds; learning language, any language, means figuring out the relationship between sounds and meanings.
I teach English. In my classroom, among other things, we examine the relationships between between words and ideas. Between words in a sentence. Between one idea and another. Between authors and their works. Between their works and our own lives.
Every academic discipline revolves around the study of relationships. In math, we express relationships in numerical terms. In physics we examine cause and effect relationships. In art we explore our human relationship with beauty, and color, and light.
Learning happens when we encode new ideas and experiences in our brain by them putting them in relationships with other things already in our brain.
But no matter what subject we teach, no matter what age our students, the most important relationship in any classroom is the relationship between teacher and student.
The importance of relationships to learning is a principle highlighted by John Medina in his book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving
at Work, Home, and School, Medina argues, that “our ability to learn has deep roots in relationships” (45). Assuming this is true, and assuming human relationships are inherently based on some emotional connection, “our learning performance may be deeply affected by the emotional environment in which the learning takes place” (45).
Consider the experience of college student, and prospective teacher, Lauren Gesualdi. Reflecting on her own schooling Gesualdi says:
“When you like the teacher, you look forward to the class. When you have a friendly relationship with the teacher it is easier to ask questions and ask for help. When you like the teacher as a person, you want to hear what he or she has to say.”
These personal and practical observations from the student’s perspective support what Medina says about the importance of relationships in the classroom. He says, “If someone does not feel safe with a teacher…he or she may not be able to perform as well. If a student feels misunderstood because the teacher cannot connect with the way the student learns, the student may become isolated” (46).
Gesualdi gives further illustration to this concept in talking about her own experiences with a teacher, whom she feels showed a “lack of compassion” for her students. This failure to connect undoubtedly had an impact on the learning Gesualdi achieved in that class, as indicated by the following description of her classroom experience and the emotion behind it:
This concept, likely clear to anyone who has spent time in a classroom as either a student or a teacher, is corroborated by cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham in his book Why Students Don’t Like School. Willingham declares “the emotional bond between students and teacher—for better or worse—accounts for whether students learn” (51). He says that effective teachers are able to organize course material in a way that is interesting and understandable, and “they are able to connect personally with students” (51).
Howard Gardner’s work supports this assertion; he says it is simply a truism that if a teacher hopes for some material to be “attended to, mastered, and subsequently used, one must be sure to wrap it in a context that engages the emotions” (77).
Just what constitutes emotion in the context of learning is an important question to consider. For example, is there a difference between the impact of positive and negative emotion? As the example of Lauren Gesualdi and her teacher indicates, that certainly seems to be the case. Gardner says that emotions serve as a system that alerts students to topics and experiences they find “pleasurable to engage in, as well as those that may be troubling, mystifying, or off-putting. Creating an educational environment in which pleasure, stimulation, and challenge flourish is an important mission”(77).
In classroom environments where stress and tension are the dominant emotional contexts, learning can be impeded as a result. According to Donna Tiletson, “How students feel about the learning, classroom, subject matter, and the other students” plays an important part in learning because of how they impact students’ decisions about what to pay attention to (4). When “tension or fear” are present in the emotional climate of the classroom, that can inhibit learning (4). She quotes psychologist Daniel Goleman’s work Emotional Intelligence in which he says “stress makes us stupid” (5). Tileston provides a biological/neurological explanation for the impact of stress on learning. Stress interferes with learning because it triggers the release of the stress-related hormone cortisol, which in turn causes survival functions, such as the fight or flight response, to take precedence over concentration on the learning situation in the classroom.
One way in which teachers can tap into the emotional component of teaching is through the use of humor. In How the Brain Learns, Sousa outlines a number of benefits that accrue in the classroom through the use of humor. First, laughter enhances the flow of oxygen, which enhances brain function. Humor is generally an effective tool for engaging students’ attention. It also helps to relieve tension and stress in the classroom (63). Because humor taps directly into positive emotion, it helps enhance recall. Humor also generally helps to build rapport between teachers and students, thus creating positive feelings in students with regard to teachers, another component that has repeatedly been shown to have a positive correlation to learning.
Some of this post appeared in my doctoral dissertation.
Learning to read means figuring out the relationships between shapes and sounds; learning language, any language, means figuring out the relationship between sounds and meanings.
I teach English. In my classroom, among other things, we examine the relationships between between words and ideas. Between words in a sentence. Between one idea and another. Between authors and their works. Between their works and our own lives.
Every academic discipline revolves around the study of relationships. In math, we express relationships in numerical terms. In physics we examine cause and effect relationships. In art we explore our human relationship with beauty, and color, and light.
Learning happens when we encode new ideas and experiences in our brain by them putting them in relationships with other things already in our brain.
But no matter what subject we teach, no matter what age our students, the most important relationship in any classroom is the relationship between teacher and student.
The importance of relationships to learning is a principle highlighted by John Medina in his book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving
at Work, Home, and School, Medina argues, that “our ability to learn has deep roots in relationships” (45). Assuming this is true, and assuming human relationships are inherently based on some emotional connection, “our learning performance may be deeply affected by the emotional environment in which the learning takes place” (45).
Consider the experience of college student, and prospective teacher, Lauren Gesualdi. Reflecting on her own schooling Gesualdi says:
“When you like the teacher, you look forward to the class. When you have a friendly relationship with the teacher it is easier to ask questions and ask for help. When you like the teacher as a person, you want to hear what he or she has to say.”
These personal and practical observations from the student’s perspective support what Medina says about the importance of relationships in the classroom. He says, “If someone does not feel safe with a teacher…he or she may not be able to perform as well. If a student feels misunderstood because the teacher cannot connect with the way the student learns, the student may become isolated” (46).
Gesualdi gives further illustration to this concept in talking about her own experiences with a teacher, whom she feels showed a “lack of compassion” for her students. This failure to connect undoubtedly had an impact on the learning Gesualdi achieved in that class, as indicated by the following description of her classroom experience and the emotion behind it:
First I had no type of relationship with the teacher at all; then it became a bad one, one step above hatred to be exact. I dreaded the class to the fullest extent. And the second I walked into that classroom my brain was like a light switch; I saw her and instantly did not want to learn. I didn't care about what she was saying, and I didn’t bother to ask for help because I knew she wouldn’t help me regardless. I ended up not doing well in that class. I'm not saying teachers should be best friends with their students, but you want a positive relationship. A teacher should always be willing to help and should care about the student as a person not just as a student. And if you don’t really care then fake it at least. When a student realizes the teacher cares about what they have to say then they automatically care in return.
This concept, likely clear to anyone who has spent time in a classroom as either a student or a teacher, is corroborated by cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham in his book Why Students Don’t Like School. Willingham declares “the emotional bond between students and teacher—for better or worse—accounts for whether students learn” (51). He says that effective teachers are able to organize course material in a way that is interesting and understandable, and “they are able to connect personally with students” (51).
Howard Gardner’s work supports this assertion; he says it is simply a truism that if a teacher hopes for some material to be “attended to, mastered, and subsequently used, one must be sure to wrap it in a context that engages the emotions” (77).
Just what constitutes emotion in the context of learning is an important question to consider. For example, is there a difference between the impact of positive and negative emotion? As the example of Lauren Gesualdi and her teacher indicates, that certainly seems to be the case. Gardner says that emotions serve as a system that alerts students to topics and experiences they find “pleasurable to engage in, as well as those that may be troubling, mystifying, or off-putting. Creating an educational environment in which pleasure, stimulation, and challenge flourish is an important mission”(77).
In classroom environments where stress and tension are the dominant emotional contexts, learning can be impeded as a result. According to Donna Tiletson, “How students feel about the learning, classroom, subject matter, and the other students” plays an important part in learning because of how they impact students’ decisions about what to pay attention to (4). When “tension or fear” are present in the emotional climate of the classroom, that can inhibit learning (4). She quotes psychologist Daniel Goleman’s work Emotional Intelligence in which he says “stress makes us stupid” (5). Tileston provides a biological/neurological explanation for the impact of stress on learning. Stress interferes with learning because it triggers the release of the stress-related hormone cortisol, which in turn causes survival functions, such as the fight or flight response, to take precedence over concentration on the learning situation in the classroom.
One way in which teachers can tap into the emotional component of teaching is through the use of humor. In How the Brain Learns, Sousa outlines a number of benefits that accrue in the classroom through the use of humor. First, laughter enhances the flow of oxygen, which enhances brain function. Humor is generally an effective tool for engaging students’ attention. It also helps to relieve tension and stress in the classroom (63). Because humor taps directly into positive emotion, it helps enhance recall. Humor also generally helps to build rapport between teachers and students, thus creating positive feelings in students with regard to teachers, another component that has repeatedly been shown to have a positive correlation to learning.
Some of this post appeared in my doctoral dissertation.
Works Cited
Gardner, Howard. The Disciplined Mind: beyond Facts and Standardized Tests, the K-12 Education That Every Child Deserves. New York: Penguin, 2000. Print.
Gesualdi, Lauren A. "The Importance of Teacher Relationships." Telephone interview. 27 Sept. 2010.
Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, WA: Pear, 2008. Print.
Sousa, David A. How the Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2006. Print.
Tileston, Donna Walker. 10 Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles, and Standards Define Teaching Competencies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2000. Print.
Willingham, Daniel T. Why Don't Students like School?: a Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What It Means for Your Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Print.
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