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Emotional Scaffolding: The Emotional and Imaginative Dimensions of Teaching and Learning

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Advances in Teacher Emotion Research

Abstract

We suggest that teachers regularly think about how to scaffold students’ emotional response to the subject matter they teach. We further makes the case that when teachers think deeply about how students emotionally encounter their subject matter they are inevitably led to reflection on the social and cultural context of their students’ lives. Thinking about students’ emotions thus becomes one of the primary ways through which the specifics of a given subject matter and the broader sociocultural influences on student learning become intertwined in teacher thinking. This connection is illustrated with several case vignettes. In examining these cases, a second point is made: Teacher reflection on students’ emotional response to the subject matter frequently elicits emotional responses from the teachers. These emotional responses, argue, are not excessive, but are necessary components of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Salas assessed student engagement in a variety of ways. Based on her observations, a few brief student interviews, a short survey she had students fill out at the end of the lessons, and the percentage of work being turned in, she reported an increase in engagement by nearly all of her students. Interestingly, the increase in engagement seemed to be highest among the European-American young women in her class, followed by the Latin-American young women, the Latin-American young men, and then everyone else.

  2. 2.

    This analogy involves an inaccurate representation of contemporary motivational science as applied to educational processes. Ms. Maruyama recognized this later. This inaccuracy, however, is not relevant to the point being made by presenting this case. The instructor was not trying to teach motivational science, but was instead trying to teach Keynesian economics.

    Whether or not her analogy was a good representation of New Deal economic policies is a more salient consideration. Ms. Maruyama came to the conclusion, recounted below, that it was not a well crafted analogy for the New Deal policies. Again, however, this does not diminish the fact that she was thinking about students emotional response to specific aspects of the subject matter in designing this lesson, and that things can be learned from her effort, whether or not it was pedagogically successful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teacher Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Jerry Rosiek

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  1. Jerry Rosiek
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  2. Ronald A. Beghetto
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Correspondence to Jerry Rosiek .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Counseling, Educational, University of Texas, San Antonio, West Durango Blvd. 501, San Antonio, 78207-4415, U.S.A.

    Paul A. Schutz

  2. Program of Educational Studies, Open University of Cyprus, Ayiou Antoniou Str. 5, Strovolos, 2002, Cyprus

    Michalinos Zembylas

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Rosiek, J., Beghetto, R.A. (2009). Emotional Scaffolding: The Emotional and Imaginative Dimensions of Teaching and Learning. In: Schutz, P., Zembylas, M. (eds) Advances in Teacher Emotion Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2_9

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