Do emotions affect learning? And does learning affect one’s emotions? Are these two terms inter related? If so; what is the relation and how it can be defined? Let us try knowing what emotions are….

Emotions are one factor that defines humanity from the rest of the species.  We experience a multitude of emotions every day, every hour and every instant of our lives. They decide how we react to persons, incidents, and objects and design the complexity of human relations. By now brain research has proved that there is a specific area in the human brain that is related to emotions – namely the limbic system and specifically the amygdala. So emotions are conscious experiences and not just illusions. These conscious experiences are always triggered by something- an object, a person, an incident, any sensory stimulations or even a thought process. There can be both positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions are the ones that give us more energy, make us more confident and we feel more vibrant and enthusiastic both in the body and the mind. Negative emotions are the ones that zap our energy, make us less confident and we feel dull and lethargic both in the body and the mind. Emotions are both simple and complex. Simple emotions are the ones that is easy to identify and can be easily explained. The complex ones are those which we find very difficult to explain and these are normally a combination of two or more emotions. The simple emotions are the basic emotions and from early childhood onwards we start experiencing these emotions. The basic emotions are namely happiness, pleasure, sadness, anger, fear and disgust.

What is learning? Learning is a conscious experience whereby we assimilate new experiences and information and also apply already acquired sum of all the experiences and information towards the achievement of a desired outcome. Learning is continuous and ever changing. It is a womb to grave process. Learning can be both formal and informal Formal learning is a structured and precise form of learning which has a set of rules and happens inside a disciplined and previously designed environment and knowledge is being supplied by either trained manpower or elders. Formal learning happens only for a very short span of time in our lives when you consider learning as a womb to grave process. Informal learning starts soon after conception and goes on till the grave. Informal learning is an unstructured and loose form of learning which is happening 24*7 in any kind of environment and new knowledge is being assimilated from the different experiences and conscious processes that one goes through in one’s life time. Informal learning does not need a setting and in this scenario knowledge acquisition is mostly done by the self as the self goes through a multitude of experiences every second. The informal learning can be corrected and tested under the formal learning process. Children who are encouraged to learn from their life’s experiences and who are provided more awareness about informal learning tend to ask more questions in the formal learning setting of the classroom. This is because the informal acquisition of knowledge leads them to raise more questions.

It is evident that emotions are learned. The multitude of emotions that a person experience in his/her lifetime is another form of learning only. The emotions invoke physiological changes, personal experiences and expressive behaviours – thus the emotional environment that one lives in has got a significant impact on learning. In the initial period of childhood the home environment does play a vital role in learning, filling the child’s environment with positive emotions are vital in maintaining a stimulating learning experience. A child who is emotionally deprived by the parents and the immediate family tend to assimilate more negative emotions then the learning experience tends to be more awkward dull and fearsome. Similarly the emotional environment at school also has to be a positive one for the child to take learning as a challenging and rewarding task. A teacher who generates fear and demands obedience can really harm the learning experience of the child. When the emotional environment in the classroom is positive coupled with a home environment which offers the nurturing of positive emotions the children tend to be more open to the experience of learning. For these children learning becomes a challenging and rewarding experience.

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