Help Children Regulate their Emotional States for Better Learning
Emotional states (fear, disgust, sadness, frustration, anger, anxiety, curiosity, joy) are created and regulated throughout our bodies and they take processing priority in our brains. Simply, put our emotional states play a key role in influencing our behaviors. Likening our emotional states to weather, Jensen (2003) emphasizes their unstable nature: “States create ‘weather’ conditions in our brains at every moment…this weather usually changes every few seconds” (p.1); however, unlike the weather, he maintains that we have some control over our own emotional states and the states of others. This is good news for educators and parents. Through careful observation we can learn to read children’s emotional states which better positions us to help them move, if necessary, into a state more conducive to learning. You might begin working towards this goal by carefully watching a single person and making a prediction about their emotional state; then, use the person’s behavior to chec...