A revolution in neuroscience has occurred in the past two decades, transforming how we view the connections between learning, emotions, and the brain. A growing body of evidence suggests that emotions and learning are inevitably linked. We all know that ‘we feel, therefore we learn’. Emotional learning is a key aspect of teaching children, so in this blog post we will be exploring different ways in which to support it within the school context. However, since much of a child’s learning occurs in the home, parents/caregivers may also take inspiration from the upcoming suggestions.
Schools need to develop a mindset and culture in which teachers and students feel comfortable and talk freely about their emotions. In today’s world, it is critical that students learn to recognise the feelings they have and therefore, it is important for them to identify, control, and express healthy emotions and sentiments, as well as psychological issues.
As teachers, we learn how to cope with a variety of scenarios and how to approach students and their parents. Why shouldn’t this be taught to students as well?
Putting a name to our emotions has so much power. We aim to provide children with a vast emotional vocabulary so that they can describe their emotions and we can better help them. As children learn to recognise their emotions, they will frequently begin with the most fundamental ones – emotions that are natural and shared by everybody, such as happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust and anger (Ekman, 1984) – and then move on to the secondary emotions – such as, excitement, pride, embarrassment, and shame (Ekman, 1990). Naming our emotions aids in the development of emotional management abilities.
The ability to label how children feel does not come naturally to them. Their facial expressions, body language, and behaviours often reveal their emotional expressions. In order for children to express themselves effectively, we need to equip them with the tools to do so; to understand emotions, students need both the vocabulary and an understanding of the sensations of emotions in their body.
What can we do to help children understand their emotions and those of others?
Implement a whole school approach
When social-emotional learning is implemented well, a whole school approach can increase mental health literacy and promote social behaviour. A successful whole-school social-emotional strategy should mobilise multiple resources across the entire school community, and involve all essential participants, including students, school leaders, teaching and non-teaching staff, parents and families, local and larger communities, and other key stakeholders. The school leadership must show a commitment to social-emotional implementation and make sure that all other stakeholders are actively involved in helping students improve their social and emotional skills.
Model emotional expressions
The most powerful tool we have for teaching children to show their emotions is modelling; expressing our own emotions, identifying feelings, and talking freely about them. Inform children whether you are experiencing joyful or difficult emotions; we all have feelings, and it is critical that children realise that this is a normal experience. Model for children what you want to see and hear from them. Demonstrate and discuss your own facial expressions, as well as how your head, heart, and body feel as you go through your emotions. Because children are always looking and listening, do your best to model the behaviour you want to see in them.
Talk about emotions
In these challenging times when students are exposed to constant change and uncertainty, talking can also be a strategy for coping with emotional difficulties in order to promote positive well-being and overall health. Students should know that showing emotions is encouraged and is part of the learning process. When we are adults, we often make assumptions about what children need and how best to help them. Let’s listen to what they say they need instead of trying to change them on our own. A busy classroom can make it easy to miss something important happening with a student or to jump to the wrong conclusion based on what we observe. Students can help themselves more effectively if they describe and communicate what they feel and need.
Puppets are a good way to enhance the fun and value of role-playing, especially for younger children. Use simple sock puppets to act out different situations—for example, have one puppet take a toy from another puppet and ask the children what emotion(s) the puppets might be feeling (you might try having them choose from pictures of children showing different emotions). After labelling the feelings, have children:
- talk about what it feels like when someone doesn’t share
- practice making the emotion with their own faces
- discuss what the puppet should do next when feeling that emotion
As an art project, you can also have each child make their own hand puppet and ask them to use the puppets to convey their feelings during more role-play activities.
Use books as tools for talk
Picture books can be an effective tool for helping young students develop talk skills for self-advocacy or emotional processing. Reading and discussing picture books together, and seeing characters in a book experience similar challenges, encourages students to think through, problem solve, and visualise tackling similar scenarios without having to be in the middle of one.
Create opportunities for collaborative groupwork
Students can develop leadership qualities, learn how to cooperate and negotiate, and recognise their abilities in a group context through regular group work activities. By interacting with people who are different from themselves, collaborative learning can promote connectivity among students and heighten their cultural knowledge. To integrate social-emotional vocabulary into specific subjects, children can engage in card games during maths lessons or incorporate emotion vocabulary into creative writing exercises.
A great method for teaching students how to demonstrate empathy is through role play, which also promotes the growth of their interpersonal abilities, self-awareness, and self-expression. Additionally, it offers students the chance to develop, use, and refine their emotional intelligence through social interactions. Give students a variety of scenarios to act out to start this activity. They will be able to draw upon and broaden their own empathetic vocabulary as they dramatise the scenarios.
Students will enjoy this quick and easy activity, especially when using it during the morning meeting to get the day off to a positive start. The directions are simple: Just ask each student to turn to a partner and share with them “something good”—whether it’s a current situation that’s making them happy or something they’re looking forward to in the future. Here are some sample sentence stems you can share with your students to ease the discussion:
- One good thing in my life is…
- A good thing about myself is…
- Something good that happened is…
- One good thing I am looking forward to is…
Support responsible decision-making
Making responsible decisions is a crucial life skill that shows students how to make decisions while taking into account potential ethical implications, safety issues, social norms, and direct and indirect consequences. It helps students practice self-control and grow more independent and self-assured. Students are able to cooperate to recognise and overcome various difficulties through problem-solving and decision-making exercises. Help your students make informed decisions by following these steps: identify the problem, evaluate the situation, brainstorm possible solutions, analyse the options and consider the potential consequences of each option for all parties involved, and lastly, make a choice.
Promote growth mindset
Students need to be encouraged to develop a growth mindset that encourages them to see learning as a continuous process. Students can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in particular areas and track their progress through reflection and goal-setting exercises. A reflective journal writing exercise using prompts like “What is one thing your team could do differently next time to solve this problem?” would be helpful in this regard. Or, ‘When was the last time you emphatised with a peer?” Students can celebrate their progress without concentrating on the outcome by learning to set goals, reflect on their successes, and acknowledge their setbacks.
Engage in co-regulation
Teacher and provider co-regulation requires teachers to detect children’s cues and respond appropriately and consistently over time with just the right amount of support. At this stage, introduce children to a variety of coping skills when they are calm and attentive to learn (more about emotion regulation strategies in the upcoming blog posts). The children’s experiences and interactions with others will inform their future social and emotional health. This is due to the fact that the brain is a social organ, co-constructed with others. When the brain is growing at its fastest rate, it starts to wire itself through relationships in its earliest years. Hence, the warm and responsive interactions provided by the teacher are crucial.
Let’s encourage emotion talk in the classroom. Use the activities in today’s post to deepen your students’ awareness of their own feelings and strengthen their emotional intelligence inside and outside the classroom.
And remember: children should be themselves – don’t ever tell them they need to ‘just grow up’!
More about emotions and emotion regulation strategies in the upcoming blogs!