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4 mins read

How do you want learners to feel when they make a mistake?

The emotional experience of learning

Confident vs Insecure.

This blog was fuelled by this one question, used by Laura Watkin (our Head of Learning) when helping new designers and deliverers consider the environment they wish to create for learning.

I must admit, until Laura posed this question, I had often considered the environment I wanted to create and conversely the environment I didn’t want to create more simplistically. I’m sure we would have all come up with words like safe vs threatening or confident vs insecure.

I had never paused and thought more deeply about the feelings learners may experience during a learning event (end to end) and the importance of paying attention to these.

I want to feel what they feel

Laura’s question reminded me how I used to ponder….

“I’d love to know what learners are feeling while they are learning”

In part this may have been so I could vicariously live the experience with them, feel something I was missing by being the deliverer. And in part because of my ego, I wanted to maybe know I was doing a good job, but mainly because I wanted to know the learning was feeling ‘right’.

I use the word ‘right’ rather than good or bad, easy or hard. Because at times learning can feel bad and hard, but this may be a valuable feeling to experience (so is it really bad?). And at other times learning may feel easy and good (or to easy and boring), again these are all valuable feelings.

I thought – As an educator, if I could feel this, then maybe I could respond better to learner needs. Provide support, scaffolding, guidance where needed and remove it where it may not be required. Better balanceresources, learning, challenge, rest and recovery!

I’m sure in the future we may well be able to feel these…. Maybe we will see them as colours, like auras surrounding a person. However, this may be hard for us to actually acknowledge/manage. I mean if a room of 20 people were feeling pain from your learning, I’m not sure you’d cope with feeling this and responding well. It would have you on the floor writhing….

So in the year 2024 we may have to revert to a ‘temperature check’, e.g. give me a score from 1-10, 1 being, “I wish I wasn’t here and don’t have a clue”, 10 being “I’m loving this and happy with the challenge”. Or using colours on a board that people put their name next to – Red for “please make this stop”, Amber for “I’m ok but can’t be here all day”, Green for “lets keep going”.

Personally, I prefer to just ‘watch the room’, try to ‘notice changes’ and check in with individuals to see what’s going on for them. Note sometimes we shouldn’t do anything, sometimes people need to feel the feels.

How might people feel in learning?

If we view this through the lens of ASRI (Attention, Sensemaking, Retention, Internalisation) our Model for Learning Design and Delivery (linked to its associated theories) it could look a little like this…

ATTENTION

How do you want them to feel?

  • Curious “this looks intriguing” (Self-Determination Theory)
  • Able “I understand the task” (Cognitive Load Theory)

How might they feel if things aren’t going well?

  • Boredom “this is not for me” (Self-Determination Theory)
  • Frustration “I can’t manage this” (Cognitive Load Theory)

What can you do to mitigate for this?

  • Self-Determination Theory – undertake motive matching when hooking learners.
  • Cognitive Load Theory – make material easy to consume, in stages, in one place.

SENSEMAKING

How do you want them to feel?

  • Excited “I can defo use this” (Theory of perception)
  • Comfort “this feels familiar” (Schema Theory)

How might they feel if things aren’t going well?

  • Disappointment “I can’t see how this will help” (Theory of perception)
  • Self-conscious “this is alien, too new to me” (Schema Theory)

What can you do to mitigate for this?

  • Theory of perception – ensure personal meaning (and value) can be generated.
  • Schema Theory – integrate new learning with old (build the connection)

RETENTION

How do you want them to feel?

  • Organised “I understand my thinking” (Encoding)
  • Pride “I remembered it correctly” (Retrieval)

How might they feel if things aren’t going well?

  • Confused “I can’t map this out” (Encoding)
  • Shame “I can’t remember anything” (Retrieval)

What can you do to mitigate for this?

  • Encoding – Present material in a memorable and organised manner.
  • Retrieval – Create space for supported recall beyond sessions.

INTERNALISATION

How do you want them to feel?

  • Confident “I want to and feel capable to act” (Self-Directed Learner)
  • Enthusiastic “I’m going to make this happen” (Deliberate Practice)

How might they feel if things aren’t going well?

  • Anxiety “I’m worried I can’t do this” (Self-Directed Learner)
  • Apathetic “I have no interest in this” (Deliberate Practice)

What can you do to mitigate for this?

  • Self-Directed Learner – set meaningful challenges that build confidence.
  • Deliberate Practice – help people create a plan to experiment purposefully.

In Closing

If we are going to design great learning, we need to think about peoples possible emotional experiences of and with this. It’s not enough to simply apply good learning theory to a design process and say – there you go, there’s some learning. Some well-informed outcomes, some well-constructed activities and a manner of checking understanding.

We need to design for ‘emotions’ too – to make people feel safe while they experience this learning. Allow them to feel the mixture of emotions (highs and lows), warn them they are coming and help them to navigate these. Sometimes feeling them alone and other times feeling them with you next to them. If supported, this should all be ok, and lead to a greater cognitive and emotional experience.

If you want to find out more about ASRI and our work in Learning Design and Delivery just give us a shout – click the link or e mail kurt@bemorelnd.co.uk.