Emotion as a Tool in the Classroom

Abstract

Successful academic involvement requires regulation of emotion to extract the maximum benefit from the teaching‐learning process. Emotions facilitate and control much of our cognitive processes, classroom motivation and social interaction. The school curriculum being overtly cognitively loaded undermines the importance of emotion in the classroom. Two prerequisites to motivate children in the classroom are to develop an interest and inquisitiveness among them. However, the monotony of the classroom situation derails the young mind to achieve the optimum academic benefit. The role of a teacher in the classroom hence, is vital in the exchange process. The failure to realize the importance of emotions in the classroom owing to factors like completing the syllabus in time, other co‐and extra‐curricular activities and a cutthroat competition among the students to score high grades in school subjects etc. proves to be detrimental for both the teacher and the taught. Despite these challenges, it is possible to effectively engage children in the classroom through leveraging classroom communication. The ‘how’ is vital than the ‘what’ in the communication process and the classroom situation is no exception. Barring individual differences in the experience and expression of emotion, it is also possible to develop helpful strategies to manage emotion in the classroom. Researching the importance of emotion as a tool in classroom may prove beneficial not only for teacher’s own emotion regulation, but also in their ability to facilitate healthy emotion development of their students for a successful academic engagement.