"The Neuroscience of Joyful Education"

"Classrooms can be the safe haven where academic practices and classroom strategies provide students with emotional comfort and pleasure as well as knowledge. When teachers use strategies to reduce stress and build a positive emotional environment, students gain emotional resilience and learn more efficiently and at higher levels of cognition. Brain-imaging studies support this relationship."

     Judy Willis writes an uplifting article that should remind us all of our mission in education.  I don't believe the information is new or revolutionary, but is serves to focus our efforts as we return to the classroom this fall.  Learning can and should be an enjoyable experience!  However, the testing bandits have wreaked havoc with this premise.

     Take a quick look at what Willis has to say about giving students a break, creating positive associations, prioritizing information, and allowing for independent discovery learning.  I promise - it is a short article well worth the read.

Comments

[James Sigler]

Kim,
Were legislators brought up in joyless classrooms, or have they just forgotten that their most memorable classes were also the most fun? Suck the joy out of learning? To many people outside education believe that if you have a joyful classroom, you have don't have a learning classroom. Heaven forbid that there be people IN education that believe that.