Emotional Awareness Instructional Strategies
in relation to
Learning Philosophies and Theories
Description:
Following Gingerich's (2012, n/d, n/p) recommendations about how to write a powerful description, begin the lesson by teaching students how to identify feelings. Be specific when sharing Burgess and Locke's belly breathing exercise (2014, n/p) and Shrivastava's (2012, n/p) relaxation techniques. Limit modifiers while describing how to select basic emotion from feelings faces (2015, n/p) page. Get to the point while finding basic feeling in the center of Willcox's (n/d) wheel, and then correlate appropriate emotion(s) from within the basic feelings subset in the outer rings. This exercise most closely represents information processing found in perennialism, although it may be appropriate to consider a new educational philosophy in connection with feeling-centric lessons: Emotionalism. Either way, these exercises serve as the foundation for all lessons that ask students to discuss positions from an emotional, as well as rational, perspective.
Case Studies
Following The Fact Situation's (2017, n/p) definition, write a fictional testimonial that parallels a real-life adverse occurrence without any discussion of the consequences. Seek connections between points in the fact situation (i.e. fact pattern) and specific emotional reactions, as explained in Synthesis Essay (2017, n/p). This exercise approaches essentialism in that feelings, typically, are part of the 'common core' of humanity. Sometimes, there is variation between individual's emotional reactions to the same situation. The existence of emotions, however, is generally a common factor shared by all people. Obviously, this is more an exercise of experientialism rather than behaviorism. Although, ultimately, there is a connection between experiencing feelings and choosing a behavior; this phenomenon will be further explored later the lesson.
Discussion Board:
Rewrite the previous fact pattern to include specific resilience behaviors and activities used to strengthen and stabilize people after the event, and share the expanded fact pattern in as a new thread in a class discussion board in order to seed the discussion as described by Suler (2004, n/p). Revisit the fact pattern by asking students to share an emotional reaction to one of the resilience behaviors or activities in the discussion board thread. Similar to the case study activity, both exercises loosely parallel information processing learning theory. There might be some discrepancy when trying to categorize emotions as information and limiting their storage and processing to the mind, especially considering the initial description of this lesson that teaches about how feelings are identified by paying attention to the body.
Learning Together
Create small groups of two or three students. In keeping with Johnson and Johnson's (n/d, n/p) description that cooperative learning is when students work together to reach a shared goal, ask groups to discuss the 10 Ways to Build Resilience from The Road to Resilience (n/d, n/p) in relation to the fact pattern. When the group has chosen the way to build resilience that they believe best builds resilience at any particular point in the fact pattern, have one group member share the selected situation, as well as how to apply the way to build resilience under the fact pattern post in the discussion board. Include all group member's names in the share. This section of the lesson is modeled on humanism learning theory in that it is learner-centered, includes interaction with others, and allows students to choose their destiny.
Shared Writing
Although interactive writing is commonly used to develop reading and writing skills, this last section of the lesson uses interactive writing to develop more advanced skills as mentioned in Interactive Writing and Interactive Editing (n/d, p. 1). Start a new thread in the online discussion board by introducing an adverse event that is similar to the one written in the case study section of this lesson. Ask each student to contribute one sentence to the story in a “reason to build resilience – way to build resilience – associated feeling – presumed reaction” format. When students exhaust the 10 Ways to Build Resilience list, have them add new ways to build resilience from their personal experience or online research results. The principle of constructivism learning theory leads this exercise. Although the interaction with the environment is theoretical rather than real, learning to identify emotions associated with thoughts projecting into theoretical actuality is very real.
REFERENCES
Burgess, P., and Locke, S. (2014). Stress Management: breathing exercises for relaxation. WebMD. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-management-breathing-exercises-for-relaxation
Fact situation (2017). The Free Dictionary. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fact+Situation
Feelings faces: happy, sad, angry, scared (2015). Conscious Discipline. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://consciousdiscipline.com/resources/feeling_pictures.asp
Gingerich, J. (2012). Writing powerful descriptions. LitReactor. Retrieved May 2, 2017, from https://litreactor.com/columns/writing-powerful-descriptions
Interactive Writing and Interactive Editing (n/d). Retrieved May 3, 2017 from http://www.stanswartz.com/IAW%20excerpt.pdf
Johnson, D. W., and Johnson, R. T., (n/d). An overview of cooperative learning. co-operation.org. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://www.co-operation.org/what-is-cooperative-learning
The road to resilience (n/d). American Psychological Association. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx
Shrivastava, R (2012). Learn how to identify and express your feelings. Cognitive Healing. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://www.cognitivehealing.com/depression/learn-how-to-identify-and-express-your-feelings/
Suler J. (2004). Extending the classroom into cyberspace: the discussion board. The Psychology of Cyberspace. Rider University. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/extendclass.html
Synthesis essay (2017). Studybay. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://studybay.com/synthesis-essay/
Willcox, Gloria (n/d). The feeling wheel. Emory Medical University. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://med.emory.edu/excel/documents/Feeling%20Wheel.pdf
Following Gingerich's (2012, n/d, n/p) recommendations about how to write a powerful description, begin the lesson by teaching students how to identify feelings. Be specific when sharing Burgess and Locke's belly breathing exercise (2014, n/p) and Shrivastava's (2012, n/p) relaxation techniques. Limit modifiers while describing how to select basic emotion from feelings faces (2015, n/p) page. Get to the point while finding basic feeling in the center of Willcox's (n/d) wheel, and then correlate appropriate emotion(s) from within the basic feelings subset in the outer rings. This exercise most closely represents information processing found in perennialism, although it may be appropriate to consider a new educational philosophy in connection with feeling-centric lessons: Emotionalism. Either way, these exercises serve as the foundation for all lessons that ask students to discuss positions from an emotional, as well as rational, perspective.
Case Studies
Following The Fact Situation's (2017, n/p) definition, write a fictional testimonial that parallels a real-life adverse occurrence without any discussion of the consequences. Seek connections between points in the fact situation (i.e. fact pattern) and specific emotional reactions, as explained in Synthesis Essay (2017, n/p). This exercise approaches essentialism in that feelings, typically, are part of the 'common core' of humanity. Sometimes, there is variation between individual's emotional reactions to the same situation. The existence of emotions, however, is generally a common factor shared by all people. Obviously, this is more an exercise of experientialism rather than behaviorism. Although, ultimately, there is a connection between experiencing feelings and choosing a behavior; this phenomenon will be further explored later the lesson.
Discussion Board:
Rewrite the previous fact pattern to include specific resilience behaviors and activities used to strengthen and stabilize people after the event, and share the expanded fact pattern in as a new thread in a class discussion board in order to seed the discussion as described by Suler (2004, n/p). Revisit the fact pattern by asking students to share an emotional reaction to one of the resilience behaviors or activities in the discussion board thread. Similar to the case study activity, both exercises loosely parallel information processing learning theory. There might be some discrepancy when trying to categorize emotions as information and limiting their storage and processing to the mind, especially considering the initial description of this lesson that teaches about how feelings are identified by paying attention to the body.
Learning Together
Create small groups of two or three students. In keeping with Johnson and Johnson's (n/d, n/p) description that cooperative learning is when students work together to reach a shared goal, ask groups to discuss the 10 Ways to Build Resilience from The Road to Resilience (n/d, n/p) in relation to the fact pattern. When the group has chosen the way to build resilience that they believe best builds resilience at any particular point in the fact pattern, have one group member share the selected situation, as well as how to apply the way to build resilience under the fact pattern post in the discussion board. Include all group member's names in the share. This section of the lesson is modeled on humanism learning theory in that it is learner-centered, includes interaction with others, and allows students to choose their destiny.
Shared Writing
Although interactive writing is commonly used to develop reading and writing skills, this last section of the lesson uses interactive writing to develop more advanced skills as mentioned in Interactive Writing and Interactive Editing (n/d, p. 1). Start a new thread in the online discussion board by introducing an adverse event that is similar to the one written in the case study section of this lesson. Ask each student to contribute one sentence to the story in a “reason to build resilience – way to build resilience – associated feeling – presumed reaction” format. When students exhaust the 10 Ways to Build Resilience list, have them add new ways to build resilience from their personal experience or online research results. The principle of constructivism learning theory leads this exercise. Although the interaction with the environment is theoretical rather than real, learning to identify emotions associated with thoughts projecting into theoretical actuality is very real.
REFERENCES
Burgess, P., and Locke, S. (2014). Stress Management: breathing exercises for relaxation. WebMD. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-management-breathing-exercises-for-relaxation
Fact situation (2017). The Free Dictionary. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fact+Situation
Feelings faces: happy, sad, angry, scared (2015). Conscious Discipline. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://consciousdiscipline.com/resources/feeling_pictures.asp
Gingerich, J. (2012). Writing powerful descriptions. LitReactor. Retrieved May 2, 2017, from https://litreactor.com/columns/writing-powerful-descriptions
Interactive Writing and Interactive Editing (n/d). Retrieved May 3, 2017 from http://www.stanswartz.com/IAW%20excerpt.pdf
Johnson, D. W., and Johnson, R. T., (n/d). An overview of cooperative learning. co-operation.org. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://www.co-operation.org/what-is-cooperative-learning
The road to resilience (n/d). American Psychological Association. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx
Shrivastava, R (2012). Learn how to identify and express your feelings. Cognitive Healing. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://www.cognitivehealing.com/depression/learn-how-to-identify-and-express-your-feelings/
Suler J. (2004). Extending the classroom into cyberspace: the discussion board. The Psychology of Cyberspace. Rider University. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/extendclass.html
Synthesis essay (2017). Studybay. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://studybay.com/synthesis-essay/
Willcox, Gloria (n/d). The feeling wheel. Emory Medical University. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from https://med.emory.edu/excel/documents/Feeling%20Wheel.pdf