A new learning theory derived from a
phenomenological exploration of
feelings, thinking and learning through
practitioner action research.
An argument for an additional theory of learning to
include emotional and subconscious thought.
Dr. Jennifer Anne Hawkins - PhD by research,
Manchester Metropolitan University
September 2010
Every Child Matters Department for
Education and Skills
(DfES) 2006
WHO ARE YOU?
In d iv id u a l W o rld s
'T h e re e x is ts s u c h g re a t v a ria tio n in th e w a y re a lity is c o n s titu te d , in te rp re te d ,
a n d e x p la in e d , a n d fo r s o m e it m a y e v e n im p ly th a t th e s p e c ific w a y s w e d o
s o a re fu n d a m e n ta lly a rb itra ry : d iffe re n t fic tio n s fo r d iffe re n t fo lk s . B u t th e re
is n o th in g a rb itra ry a b o u t th is s itu a tio n a t a ll. A ll th a t is b e in g s a id is th a t w e
in te rp re t a n d e x p la in in w a y s th a t a re m o re o r le s s c o n s o n a n t w ith th e
p a rtic u la r re a lity w e in h a b it.' (F re e m a n 1 9 9 3 p .1 3 8 )
Why is there a need for an ‘emotional’ learning
theory in addition to existing theories?
1. Teachers need to justify ‘emotional’ research with
learners in teaching i.e. preparation, curriculum
adaptation and assessment of acquisition,
motivation and results.
2. Teachers need to justify engendering and allowing
for learners’ emotional responses as they teach.
3. In order to promote learning with emotional
wellbeing teachers need a theoretical
understanding of why learners’ feelings (both
physical and mental) are important.
Aims of my research
• To discover some reasons why students’ labelled as school refusers are
disaffected with education and consider their comments and points of view
from data gained through home-tutoring them (Inquiry Strand 1: Tutoring
twelve school refusers).
• To evaluate my own learning and teaching experiences in helping students reengage in education using a reflexive, ethnographic qualitative research
method (Inquiry Strand 2: The author’s learning process).
• To investigate and compare other teachers’ experiences of learning and
teaching through mentoring them (Inquiry Strand 3: Mentoring eight
teachers as learners).
• To explore the potential to inform and illustrate significant
strategies/interventions regarding professional practice and theory without
being prescriptive (Inquiry Strand 4: Evaluating a primary school Arts festival:
observations of feeling based learning in action).
• To disseminate findings, relating material from psychology, education, and
counselling literature to teachers and teacher trainers through mentoring,
presentation and educational publication (All four inquiry strands).
Strand 1
• Participants: 12 school-refusers aged 15 –16
• Question: “Emotional blocks: what do they tell us about the
learning process?” (Given that emotional blocks are defined
as barriers to learning, which are ‘apparently’ inexplicable.)
• Methods: Narrative - phenomenography - participatory
action-research - mentoring skills - psychosocial interpretation
• Data: Speech transcription, work records with written feeling
responses, teaching notes, observations, letters and forms
from and reports to the Local Education Authority, reflective
summaries, critical points lists and models
• Analysis: Thematic
GUIDING QUESTION: What is the relationship between
feelings, thinking and learning?
Graph of tutoring hours per pupil
Significant causes of environmental significance were identified from all twelve
cases. Themes such as embarrassment, depression (including attempted suicide)
and low self-esteem caused by learning difficulties, bullying, confusion caused
by inadequate parenting, traumatic events such as illness, bereavement and
family break-up.
Strand 2
• Participant: The researcher and her learning process
• Question: “How do feelings affect my learning and teaching?”
• Methods: Narrative – phenomenology - auto-ethnography action research – self-counselling - symbolic models using
pictorial symbols
• Data: Autobiography from the perspective of a child; an autoethnography from the perspective of an adult based on
autobiographical notes and memories, biography and
psychological analysis of significant others, reviews and
observations on literature, lists of significant and critical
points, symbolic modelling using pictorial symbols,
researchers reflexive, retrospective and summarised diary
• Analysis: Thematic
GUIDING QUESTION: What is the relationship between
feelings, thinking and learning?
Strand 3
• Strand 3 - Mentoring 8 teachers aged 25 – 55
• Question: “How do feelings affect other teachers’
learning and teaching?”
• Methods: Narrative - participatory action research mentoring skills - symbolic models using pictorial
symbols
• Data: Mentoring records, symbolic models,
autobiographical writing, participants’ and researcher
summaries, and on the spot speech transcription
• Analysis: thematic
GUIDING QUESTION: What is the relationship between
feelings, thinking and learning?
Strand 4
• Strand 4 - Evaluating a school arts festival
• Question: “How might feeling-responsive environments
facilitate the learning of professionals and pupils alike?”
• Methods: Narrative - ethnographic- participatory action
research - communities of practice - mentoring skills project modelling
• Data: Questionnaires, interview notes, project models,
evaluation summaries by researcher and participants,
observational notes and summaries
• Analysis: Thematic in relation to conducive, learning
contexts, learning through feelings.
GUIDING QUESTION: What is the relationship between
feelings, thinking and learning?
Thematic Analysis
Resilience associated with:
absorption (interest, curiosity and fascination), managing distractions
(self-knowledge and emotional self-management), noticing (awareness
and sensitivity) and perseverance (patience and persistence)
Resourcefulness connected with questioning (guessing and sensitivity),
making links (open mindedness), imagining (creative construction and
awareness) and reasoning (self-confidence, deconstructive and
constructive thinking);
Reflectiveness linked to planning (self-confidence and awareness of cause
and effect), revising (thoughtfulness, patience and determination),
distilling (dreaminess, contemplation and meditation) and metalearning (confidence, communication skills, decision making and
analysing
Reciprocity in relation to interdependence (caring for others and cooperating), collaboration (friendliness, leading and complying),
empathy (personal identity, supporting, loving and caring) and
listening (including physiognomic perception) and imitation
(enthusiasm, admiration and copying).
Claxton, G. (2002) Building learning power: helping young people become better learners. Bristol: TLO
‘Meta-learning’ (understanding learning and yourself
as a learner) (Claxton, 2002)
“An important aspect in developing meta-learning is being given
an element of choice. Gilbert points out that teachers should
ensure young people have some control, give opportunities
for choice and offer young people responsibility. He advises
teachers that it is possible, paradoxically, to gain control by
giving it (Gilbert, 2002, pp. 94-102). Choice was a key element
in much of The Festival work. In Primary School 4’s project,
pupils decided on their own project titles. The teacher wrote
that the pupils produced “…30 individual creative directions –
they decided and developed their own directions for each
painting and sculpture”. Emma, a pupil in Primary School 3,
explained on her evaluation sheet how the pupils were helped
to use their own imaginations. She stated that, “Chloe was
very kind and let us have our own choices and not have her
choosing everything we do and say. We chose the things we
wanted to happen in each scene.””
Hawkins 2010
Findings
•
Some effects, both physical and mental, of ‘inappropriate’ and ‘appropriate’
emotional learning environments, which either restricted or enabled ‘freedom to
learn’, affecting different learners, in different ways (Rogers & Freiberg, 1983).
• Discounting emotional and subjective learning contributed towards serious longterm costs to society. In the areas under investigation this tended towards the
wastage of school-refusers and teachers as a human resource
• There were implications within the research for unacknowledged general
educational underachievement and inefficiency due to a lack of knowledge and
training.
• Learning could be triggered and was influenced through a positive change in
environment e.g. Learners benefited from opportunity and encouragement to
think in a ‘feeling’ way, exposure to new challenges through ‘feelings’ stimulation,
satisfaction in achievement of physical and mental skills and a forgiving ‘positive
regard’ teaching approach (Rogers, 1951).
• It was clearly evident that ‘successful’ environments might be engineered through
the ‘emotional’ skills and understandings of professionals.
CONCLUSION: If affective aspects of cognition were theorised, officially recognised,
researched, considered and worked with at all levels in the current education
system, learning might be more efficiently enabled.
“To put it simply – human feelings matter in learning processes, whether we
understand and /or agree with them or not. Feelings expressed in this research
revealed ‘the remarkable potential of human beings to respond constructively to
an ecologically compatible milieu once it is made available’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979:
7).” Hawkins 2010