Positive Emotions and Their Role in a Learning Environment

Several years ago, when I finalized my postgrad studies, I had the opportunity to present my project at an international congress on education with the support and guidance of my thesis advisors. I remember feeling emotions of appreciation, joy, and love that day for everyone involved in making that moment of my life happen.

In addition to sharing and disseminating my experience at an international forum, this event helped me visualize my trajectory and find my life purpose. Now that I am an advisor to my thesis students, I seek to generate memorable learning situations that can transfer to a personal and professional context. In this article, I share tips and strategies for emotionally positive training in a learning space regardless of the discipline taught. The objective is that the students and teachers enjoy the teaching-learning process.

Positive emotions make the individual feel good and generate openness, connection, and creativity; their thoughts, actions, and perspectives expand to better cope with stress, adversity, and life challenges (Fredrickson, 2001). When accompanied by well-defined didactic and pedagogical strategies, positive emotions help create a positive learning environment. They improve the students’ disposition and openness, increasing their motivation and commitment to learning. This state of mind and spirit decreases stress and anxiety by improving their health and emotional well-being. Therefore, fostering a learning environment where students experience positive emotions facilitates acquiring new knowledge and appreciating memorable experiences.

Relationship between positive emotions and learning

A study by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan on 268 seventh-grade students examined the effect of positive emotions on developing English language skills (listening, reading, writing) in two groups, one control and one experimental. The six-week intervention focused on generating moments of good humor in the students with fun or funny riddles as a didactic resource. The students participating in the experimental group stated that they found the intervention helpful and that learning new words using fun riddles improved their language skills. The study even mentioned that some students loved sharing the riddles they had learned in class with their families and friends. From the teacher’s perspective, the atmosphere in class was good; the students were more cheerful and looked forward to the subsequent class sessions. Thus, the study concluded that fostering a supportive learning environment increased students’ positive emotions, sense of humor, and language ability. That is, they learned more quickly and had more empathy toward the content presented by the teacher. In addition, they could better manage their emotions and the stress that the learning process might generate. (Liao et al., 2023).

Another study conducted in Germany by the German Federal and Research Ministry (Bundesministerium Für Bildung und Forschung) compared the performance of students in a teacher-led learning context versus students in a self-directed learning context. The data collected from the 828 adolescents participating in the study in both groups were statistically analyzed and supported three primary constructs related to 1) achieving objectives, 2) positive emotions, and 3) self-efficacy. Each consisted of specific indicators measured through Likert scales. The comparison revealed that students in the self-directed learning modality had higher averages in the relationship between achieving objectives and positive emotions than students under the teacher’s tutelage. They aspired to improve their abilities, perceived learning opportunities for continuous development and interpreted failures as a motivation to work harder. Thus, fostering a positive learning environment can favorably impact students’ learning processes. On the other hand, Schweder, Raufelder, and Wulff (2022) stated that fostering self-efficacy and positive emotions in learning contexts focused on achieving objectives is beneficial to prevent the motivational decline of the student. (Schweder et al., 2022).

An additional experience is from the Tecnologico de Monterrey Santa Fe Campus in Mexico, where researchers documented the importance of positive emotions in education. This study involved gamification as a didactic strategy to increase students’ motivation and commitment to acquire knowledge in chemistry in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-eight engineering students participated, receiving a questionnaire with 25 items divided into two large categories (motivation and commitment) to identify their perceptions regarding the didactic strategy and knowledge acquisition during the course. They applied knowledge tests to the students before and after using the strategy to determine if there were changes in learning outcomes. They found that gamification increased students’ motivation and engagement by improving their willingness and attitude toward the class. The students kept their cameras on during sessions and improved their class attendance and grades with a final pass rate of 76%. Thus, this study affirmed the usefulness of planning strategies designed to improve motivation and promote student interest in an online learning context. (Chans y Portuguez, 2021).

Strategies to generate positive emotions in the classroom

Below, I share two strategies you can apply transversally to your discipline to help students identify positive emotions that serve as an engine to be more receptive to the disciplinary aspects you share with them during your sessions.

Your smile. Ask your students to search their mobile devices for a photograph that makes them smile and feel joy, love, gratitude, or hope. Once they have selected the photo, ask them to look at it for a minute and write three to five events that they think favored the image, which makes them smile now that they see it again. Students regularly select photos of themselves with their family, friends, or pets at some significant moment in their lives, doing some activity they like, such as music, sports, art, a job, or places they visit. This strategy adapts the original design of the Tec Week activity called “Ikigai: Build Your Dreams” at Tecnologico de Monterrey.

Then ask students to upload the photo to a digital board such as Padlet or Jamboard, write their name on the post, and accompany it with a sentence of no more than eight words describing why that picture makes them smile. Also, you can ask some students to share some of their photos with the group. Suggest that whenever they feel stressed, worried, or upset, they return to that digital board and find something that will surely make them smile and thus clear their mind to continue dealing with (resolving) whatever stresses, worries, or bothers them. I have used this activity to bring students closer to general concepts and aspects surrounding positive emotions to understand their importance in identifying and building their life purpose. It can also be used transversally as an icebreaker activity, at the start of a training unit, or to help students prepare emotionally for the closing of the academic year, which can cause them moments of anxiety and stress.  

Sculpting positive emotions. To perform this activity, you need plasticine (like Play-Doh). Ask the students to mold an object that symbolizes one of the emotions below. Once they make the plasticine figure, invite them to describe, in front of the group, how the thing represents the emotion they selected. Finally, you may photograph all the objects, create a collage, and share it in a digital space. Invite the students to comment on the positive emotions generated by the group regarding the things made.

Like the previous strategy, use it as an icebreaker element within your didactic sequence or start the delivery of your training unit, or at any moment when you must monitor how your students arrive emotionally to a specific session or period within the training unit. Concerning the disciplinary part, this strategy serves the purpose of knowing and deepening understanding of the ten positive emotions defined by Barbara Fredrickson (see below), which can then be linked to other elements of positive psychology.

Below is the list of emotions and their descriptions developed by Fredrickson (2009) as a frame of reference to implement your activity.

1. Love. Love is splendid; it is not just a type of positivity. It includes aspects such as joy, gratitude, serenity, and wonder.
2. Joy. This excitement occurs when you are in a familiar and safe place. Things are going well, and your face lights up with a smile and an inner glow. It makes you want to absorb it all. You want to dive in and get involved in everything around you.
3. Gratitude. Gratitude occurs when we appreciate something as a gift worth treasuring. Gratitude opens our hearts and brings the desire to give something back, to do something good for someone, without a sense of paying some debt; that is, it makes us give freely and creatively.
4. Interest. Although you feel perfectly safe, something new or different catches your attention and fills you with a sense of possibility or mystery. In other words, interest invites you to explore, assimilate new ideas, and learn more.
5. Hope. Although positivity usually occurs when you feel safe and satisfied, hope is an exception. Hope kicks in when circumstances are difficult or uncertainty exists about how things will turn out. Hope keeps us from becoming discouraged in times when there is despair. It motivates us to draw on our skills and inventiveness to turn things around and inspires us to plan for a better future.
6. Pride. Pride is one of the so-called conscious emotions because, based on our actions, we become aware of ourselves. That is, we feel pride when we deserve recognition and shame when we deserve blame. Pride ignites dreams to do more and attain new goals, motivating one to achieve.
7. Astonishment. This excitement occurs when we encounter the good on a large scale. We become genuinely overwhelmed by greatness. Wonder makes us stop, observe barriers breaking down, and feel part of something bigger than ourselves. We feel humble, leading us to understand that we are part of something bigger.
8. Inspiration. Feeling inspired captivates your attention, touches your heart, and attracts you. Inspiration not only makes us feel good, but it also makes us want to express the good and do it.
9. Fun. Sometimes something unexpected happens that makes you laugh. Fun brings the irrepressible desire to laugh and share joy with others.
10. Serenity. Like joy, serenity arises when your surroundings are safe and known but much calmer. It is when you can breathe a long sigh because your circumstances at that moment are very comfortable and acceptable.

Reflection

Allow students to meet diverse positive emotions within the learning space. They will be able to identify character strengths in themselves, such as creativity, humility, self-regulation, and perseverance, and experience triggers for their physical, mental, and social well-being.

The strategies I share in this article have been implemented in training units such as Tec Week’s “Ikigai: Build Your Dreams” and general education blocks for the School of Engineering and Sciences and training courses with teachers. Generally, they have been well received by the participants because it allows them to reconnect with their interior selves and realize that enjoying what they are doing, however small, large, simple, or complex, is an excellent way to leverage the experience. Also, they can recognize and be aware of positive emotions in all moments, which supports how they face the day-to-day and transform their life experiences.

On a personal level, these practices have allowed me to find points of interest in common with the participants on topics related to music, sports, or possible collaborations in professional projects, which has favored my work and personal dynamics. Through this article, I share my experiences with positive psychology and learning issues, hoping they are helpful and contribute something positive to our learning environments.

About the author

José Alberto Herrera (jalberto.herrera@tec.mx) is a leader in the design of pedagogical solutions in the Directorate of Educational Innovation and Digital Learning at the Tecnologico de Monterrey campus in Monterrey. His areas of continuous interest are learning and contributing to the educational field.

References

Barragán, R. and Morales, C. (2014). Psicología de las emociones positivas: generalidades y beneficios Enseñanza e Investigación en Psicología, vol. 19, núm. 1, pp. 103-118. Consejo Nacional para la Enseñanza en Investigación en Psicología A.C. Xalapa, México.

Chans, G. and Portuguez, M. (2021). Gamification as a Strategy to Increase Motivation and

Engagement in Higher Education Chemistry Students. Computers, 10, 132, https://doi.org/10.3390/computers10100132

Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Las 10 emociones positivas. Teaching lecture “Certificado Fundamentos de Psicología Positiva.” TecMilenio.

Fredrickson, B. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218-226.

Fredrickson, B. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300-319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.300

Liao, Y., Lee, M., Sung, Y., and Chen, H. (2023). The Effects of Humor Intervention on Teenagers’ Sense of Humor, Positive Emotions, and Learning Ability: A Positive

Psychological Perspective. Journal of Happiness Studies, 24, 1463–1481 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00654-2

Pherez, G., Vargas, S., and Jerez, J. (2018). Neuroaprendizaje, una propuesta educativa: herramientas para mejorar la praxis del docente.Civilizar Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, 18(34), 149-166. https://doi.org/10.22518/usergioa/jour/ccsh/2018.1/a10

Seligman, M. (2011). Flourish. Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Schweder, S., Raufelder, D., and Wulff, T. (2022). Adolescents’ Goals, Self-Efficacy, and Positive Emotions – how important is the learning context? International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 10(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2020.1791771

Editing

Edited by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Editor of the Edu Bits articles and Producer of the Webinars of the Observatory- “Learning that inspires” – Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education of Tec de Monterrey.

Review Committee

Leonardo Glasserman

Reviewed: May 17, 2023
Submitted: April 4, 2023
Publish date: May 23, 2023

Translation by Daniel Wetta

José Alberto Herrera Bernal

Share

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0