SEL Guide on How Emotions Affect Learning in Students
Our Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Guide on How Emotions Affect Learning in Students explores how emotions—both positive and negative—impact focus, memory, and motivation.
Emotions play a crucial role in shaping how students learn, behave, and interact in the classroom. Understanding the connection between emotions and learning is essential for creating an environment where students can thrive academically and emotionally.
By recognizing these effects, teachers can implement strategies to help students manage their emotions, build resilience, and develop the skills needed to succeed. This guide provides valuable insights and practical tools to foster emotional well-being and enhance the learning experience.
The Emotional Side of Learning
Emotions are intricately tied to learning because they shape how the brain processes information. Neuroscience research shows that emotions influence attention, memory, and the ability to solve problems. Positive emotions, such as curiosity and enthusiasm, enhance learning by activating brain areas associated with higher-order thinking and memory retention.
On the other hand, negative emotions, such as stress or shame, trigger the brain’s fight-or-flight response, diverting cognitive resources away from learning and towards survival instincts.
Here are some common negative emotions that can hinder students’ learning:
- Anxiety: Test anxiety or fear of making mistakes can lead students to freeze up, struggle to focus, or experience blanking out on previously learned material.
- Frustration: When students don’t understand a concept quickly, frustration can build up, leading to disengagement and feelings of incompetence.
- Boredom: If a subject feels uninteresting or irrelevant, students may become bored and lose motivation to actively participate in the learning process.
- Low Self-Esteem: Students who doubt their abilities may approach new challenges with the belief that they can’t succeed, creating a self-fulfilling cycle of underperformance.
Social Emotional Learning and Teen Wellness
Our Mental Health Guide to Teen Wellness in Education is an invaluable resource for teachers aiming to integrate social-emotional learning (SEL) into their classrooms. Designed to support teens’ emotional growth, this guide offers structured approaches to understanding and managing emotions, helping students build the skills necessary for self-regulation and positive social interactions.
By using practical tools, reflection exercises, and discussion prompts, teachers can create an environment that emphasizes emotional awareness and resilience. With resources that align with SEL goals, our guide empowers students to develop healthier coping strategies and enhance their emotional well-being, setting a foundation for success both inside and outside the classroom.
How Teachers Can Help Students Regulate Emotions When it Comes to Learning
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Understanding that emotions are tied to learning gives teachers an opportunity to address these emotional barriers and help students thrive academically. Here are several strategies teachers can use to help students manage and overcome negative emotions:
1. Create a Positive and Safe Learning Environment
The classroom should feel like a safe space where students know it’s okay to make mistakes and grow from them. When students feel supported and safe, their brains are more receptive to learning.
- Encourage Open Communication: Let students know that it’s okay to talk about their emotions. Teachers can create trust by showing empathy and listening to their students’ concerns. When students feel heard, they’re more likely to open up about their challenges.
- Normalize Mistakes: Emphasize that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process. Use mistakes as teaching moments rather than moments of criticism. This shift helps students view errors as opportunities for growth rather than reasons to feel ashamed or anxious.
- Recognize Effort Over Results: Praising effort rather than just outcomes fosters a growth mindset, helping students understand that their abilities can improve with time and persistence. This reduces the fear of failure and builds resilience.
2. Use Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques
Teaching students to manage their emotions through mindfulness can reduce stress and anxiety, allowing them to focus better on learning tasks.
- Mindfulness Exercises: Encourage students to practice mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing or short meditation breaks, especially before tests or stressful activities. Mindfulness helps students stay present and calm, reducing negative emotions like anxiety.
- Mindful Transitions: After recess, lunch, or a difficult task, use a few minutes to do a calming activity, such as stretching or focused breathing, to reset students’ emotions before diving into the next lesson.
3. Incorporate Emotional Literacy Into Lessons
Helping students understand and regulate their emotions can be an integral part of their learning experience.
- Teach Emotional Awareness: Incorporate discussions about emotions into the curriculum. Encourage students to label what they’re feeling—whether it’s frustration, anxiety, or excitement—and discuss how these emotions affect their learning.
- Introduce Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Incorporating SEL programs in the classroom helps students develop emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills. These skills are essential in managing stress, coping with frustration, and working through difficult academic challenges.
Check out this resource we have on the topic of SEL.
4. Provide Differentiated Support
Not all students learn the same way, and for some, negative emotions may arise from unmet learning needs. Providing personalized support can help reduce the frustration or anxiety students feel when they struggle to understand a concept.
- Offer Flexible Learning Options: Give students the option to demonstrate their understanding in different ways—whether through written work, oral presentations, or creative projects. This flexibility can reduce the pressure and anxiety that often come with standardized testing or traditional assessment methods.
- Break Tasks Into Smaller Steps: For students who get overwhelmed, breaking down assignments into manageable parts can reduce anxiety and make learning feel more achievable. Provide positive reinforcement for completing each step, no matter how small.
5. Foster Positive Peer Relationships
Social interactions also have a significant emotional impact on learning. When students feel connected to their peers and teachers, they experience a sense of belonging and confidence.
- Encourage Collaborative Learning: Group projects and peer-to-peer learning can foster a supportive classroom culture. Students often feel more comfortable expressing their thoughts in smaller groups, which can alleviate feelings of frustration or inadequacy.
- Promote Peer Support: Encouraging students to help each other in areas where they feel confident fosters a collaborative, less competitive atmosphere. Peer support not only builds positive relationships but also helps students learn from each other in a less intimidating way.
6. Cultivate a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset—the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort and perseverance—is a powerful antidote to many negative emotions that inhibit learning.
- Model a Growth Mindset: Teachers can demonstrate growth mindset thinking by sharing their own experiences with overcoming challenges and learning from mistakes. By modeling resilience, teachers show students that struggles are part of the learning journey.
- Encourage Self-Reflection: Ask students to reflect on what they’ve learned from mistakes or challenges, rather than focusing solely on the final outcome. Self-reflection helps students see setbacks as temporary and learn how to improve.
For teachers looking for a set of books around emotions I recommend:
Helping Students Overcome Negative Emotions
How emotions affect learning is an important topic when it comes to helping students close gaps and find success with their learning.
Learning is not just about book learning; it is full of emotions. Whether students are filled with excitement or anxiety when they sit down to learn, their emotional state has a direct impact on how effectively they absorb and retain information.
Emotions can either fuel motivation and engagement or create barriers that make learning feel impossible. Negative emotions, such as fear, frustration, or anxiety, can hold students back and impede their ability to succeed in the classroom.
However, with the right support from teachers, students can learn to overcome these negative emotions and unlock their full potential. In this article we will look at supporting teachers in dealing with student emotions and how they balance it with student learning.
This short video highlights the power emotions have when it comes to learning and teaching.
Regulate Student Positive Emotions With Journals
Regulate Student Positive Emotions With Journals
Journaling is a powerful tool for helping students recognize, express, and regulate their positive emotions in a healthy and constructive way. By encouraging students to reflect on moments of joy, gratitude, or accomplishment, journals provide a space for self-awareness and emotional growth.
Writing about positive experiences not only reinforces these feelings but also helps students develop a habit of focusing on the good, even during challenging times. Teachers can use guided prompts to help students explore their emotions, set goals, and celebrate their progress, fostering a positive mindset that enhances both their well-being and academic success.
Journals may be a good resource for regulating student emotions. Consider visiting Promptly Journals to view their wide selection of journals for every situation!
Click here to view and choose from among their wide variety of journal types.
How Emotions Affect Learning in Students in High School
In highlighting the balance between emotions and learning, we will focus on the high school years.
Why do emotions play less of a role as students get older?
Students in high school and beyond may overlook the connections emotions play when it comes to learning because of societial expectations. As students approach their high school years, they generally become more aware of how others percieve them, and so they may worry that signs of negative emotions may signal weakness.
However, with being allowed to connect to their emotions, students may begin to see how their negative emotions may stand in their way of learning. When teachers explain and demonstrate to students how emotions may help or hinder their learning, students may begin to self-regulate their emotions as they learn.
When students begin to connect to their emotions, they may either find ways to overcome anxieties attached to learning, or may decide learning is not for them.
Overcoming Emotions That Stand Against Learning
Once students recognize negative emotions that may be standing in their way, they can begin to work towards overcoming these emotions.
Often times students can begin to form negative emotions towards what they are learning for varying reasons.
For example they may find what they are learning to be:
- too hard
- useless
- boring
Whatever the reasons, teachers should explain and demonstrate the skills attached to learning the subject. Skills attached to learning include: problem solving, and time management skills.
When students see that any learning really is also about building life skills, they can see how their emotions also impact on their motivation to learn! Watch our video below on how to increase motivation in school.
Regualting Emotions in the Math Classroom
Math is perhaps the subject that is most closely tied to negative emotions students experience with their learning.
Often this is due to either the subject concepts being too hard, or deemed useless by the students.
These negative emotions may also lead students to develop anxieties when it comes to learning math, or any subjects related to math.
In helping to overcome negative emotions tied to math learning, students should be shown how concepts in math are really meant to enhance their problem solving skills.
How students approach solving a problem could be all they really need to understand when it comes to math if they can’t bring themselves to show positive emotions when it comes to learning math.
Regualting Emotions in the Online Classroom
Learning in the online classroom worked well for those who chose to learn this way.
But when the pandemic of 2020 caused classes around the world to learn online, anxieties and negative emotions were felt by both students and teachers.
Negative emotions tied to learning online were also caused by various factors including;
- too hard to focus
- too boring
- the fear of technology
- the unfamiliarity of technology
- socioeconomic status
These factors directly impacted on students which resulted in what can be considered as learning loss among many students.
Again, in working to overcome negative emotions, students should be given ways to engage with activies online so they can take back control from the technology and benefit their other skills such as organization, and time management.
Accepting Emotions For What They Are
Not every student thrives in the traditional classroom and this is something that should be accepted rather than forced to change.
Often times, when it comes to the genders, boys tend to have a harder time regulating their emotions when it comes to learning in their middle years.
In recognizing the differences genders bring to the classroom, teachers can use these differences in ways that may benefit the different ways boys and girls learn.
In accepting emotions for what they are in the classroom, teachers can work with students to make personalized goals for their academic success.
These goals may be to understand the basics or to learn in non-traditional or differentiated ways.
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Final Thoughts…
If emotions in the classroom are overlooked, students may never come to realize why they never enjoyed their time in school.
Students who may seem like they don’t belong in the traditional classroom, may actually thrive outside the classroom where they are encouraged to follow their goals and passions in their own way.
Working with positive emotions students feel when learning brings their success to new highs.
Not dealing with negative emotions students feel when learning brings their desire for success to new lows.
So hopefully, after reading this article dear teachers, you will agree with me as to just how important emotions are when it comes to learning.
Share Your Thoughts!
We would like to hear from you! Let know your thoughts in the comments below on how emotions connect to student learning in the classroom.
