Feeling and Learning

Reading We Feel Therefore we Learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education by Immordino-Yang and Damasio: I was hit when I read the passage on page 28 that states "the basic premise is that when learning and knowledge are relatively devoid of emotion, when people learn things by "rote" without internally driven motivation and without a sense of interest or real world relevance, then it is likely that they won't be able to use what they learn efficiently in the real world" (p. 28). My organization is in the midst of developing a second in a series of VR exercises to augment our traditional computer based training offering. We've already discovered that the extra practice that VR exercises provide tend to improve long term memory and recall, but what we want to provide in this second version is an emotional impact. 

This second training is on a feature common in my industry called "Confined Space." Working in confined spaces are extremely dangerous and there are a myriad of procedures in place to try and minimize those dangers. Despite these efforts, in generally, confined space injuries and fatalities make up the majority of injuries and fatalities in our industry. For those outside of the industry who would like to understand more about Confined Spaces, you can see this video (linked here (Links to an external site.)) which shows a fire in a confined space or imagine your attic, or a 4-6 foot deep ditch or excavation, or the crawl space under your house. These are all examples of confined spaces. 

Our team is working to include videos that illustrate and describe fatal confined space events that are similar to the ones that the learner will experience in the VR exercise. We hope to include enough personal information about the workers and the nature of their work to produce and emotional response and create stronger, more well developed memories of what to do and how to work in confined spaces, and especially how to avoid fatalities in confined spaces. 

Having read that passage I've cited above, it's clear to see how having the emotional connection can lead to a supervisor taking different steps if he understands the emotions behind the decisions he's making. Take a supervisor without that emotional connection, similar for instance to the sample patients Immordino-Yang and Damasio use to set up their article, those who struggled to have emotionally related bodily reactions, he might send his folks into dangerous confined space situations, while that supervisor who has had an emotionally compelling experience would be less likely to expose his team to those dangers. We are trying to develop the emotional impact necessary to ensure that when sending any team member into a confined space for work, the supervisor will recall the video, the emotional impact that came with learning about the fatalities, and the VR exercises he took with us, and ensure he is doing everything possible to keep his team safe.

I wonder if anyone else is working with intertwining emotionally resonant training into traditional training and if so what outcomes have they seen? 

References

Immordino-Yang, M.H. (2016). Emotions, learning and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company