Feelings
PIDP 3100- Foundations of Adult Education
Assignment 1—Reflective Writing 1
Objective and Reflective
It is the proposed end of the pandemic they say—things should be back to normal. But
in all reality, the world seems changed forever. People seem very different. Students
seem more apprehensive and with increased anxiety; less resilient and less prepared
for life. Perpetual and habitual engagement with “smart” devices has left learners
separate from Reality, and with atrophied interpersonal and motivation skills as a bare
minimum of negative fallout post-pandemic.
I have only been teaching for a little over five years and I really am concerned that it is
still worsening. I found this assignment quotation interesting:
"We may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling
creatures that think. " (p.170)
This quote really struck home. As I wondered if we really do understand the role of
emotions on human biology and our everyday lives. As humans, we are supposed to be
so evolved. Emotions permeate every bit of our Humanity—even learning. We accept
that animals have both instincts, and imprinted emotions. Recent experiences working
with parrots in “Parrot Kindergarten” has taught me that sometimes parrots have mood
swings, which preclude their learning
It seemed to me that many of the students’ reactions that I notice had to do with their
previous educational experiences—apparently many were less than positive. Many
were so negative that they just assumed from the start that my intensions as an
instructor are untrustworthy. I find this overwhelmingly sad. But as a product of the
University educational system, I remind myself that I felt this way during my
undergraduate years. So many teachers base their evaluation of learning on
inappropriate assessment techniques. Creating evaluation tools seemingly to trick their
learners. Things changed when I entered into trade school and the overall focus was
very different. Learning a trade where instructors took on a more coaching role and
less that of a disciplinarian. So, yes, today there is more distrust in Society—for many
reasons. Distrusting young adults who seem less mature, and thus needing more
instructional help from the facilitators. Everything from getting up on time for class, to
getting assignments in on time. A good proportion of my time is walking students
through the “process of being a student” and the process of being open to learning
without suspicion. And de-programming them from their constant “smart” device
addictions which so heavily impacts learning and attention-span in the classroom
setting.
Currently, I teach adults mostly over twenty years of age, and mostly women in a mixed
student body. I can’t believe how teaching involves negating pre-conditioned emotions.
Nothing has prepared me for this. Women are biologically more emotional—but the in-
class meltdowns, walk-outs and overwhelmed outbursts of screaming— It’s like I’m
dealing with toddlers. My first year as an instructor was about going home each night to
cry due to the in-class emotional outbursts and learner frustration being exhibited—not
for the faint of heart.
I was talking to some colleagues recently, and many of them mentioned how exhausted
they were. Not just general exhaustion, but emotional exhaustion from managing
student immaturity and in-class drama. It seems that immaturity and instability is an
expected and an accepted thing these days. Almost like it is permitted behaviour to just
download your emotional baggage onto others. No accountability to be mature and
"handle" the difficulty yourself.
As youngsters we are creatures that feel, likely more than we reason. This is noted in
birds as well. Parrots have human-like emotions. They operate on this daily. And never
really gain maturity over them. I have one parrot that routinely comments on her
situation daily, with "Good" or "Bad", depending on how she feels. It’s funny for about 5
minutes, as she will yell “baaadddd!” for hours if she feels that her situations deserves it.
Life is either good or bad, with no in between. It’s all drama, all the time. Sounds like
some teens too!
Managing parrot emotions is equally challenging. It is important, as a well adapted
parrot in captivity does better, if they are forced to live in a world with humans.
Interestingly Amazon parrots also have a place that they mentally go that circumvents
reason. Emotions take over mental reasoning in humans as well. Many of the great
Avian Behaviourists have described this as an "Overload" behaviour. The emotional
part of their brain overloads the reasoning part of their brain. And they revert to
perhaps their reptilian instinctual part.....feelings take over. And for some reason, as a
fight or flight behaviour, results in biting. A conflict of the limbic and the reptilian brains.
Perhaps in people, the drama we see in the classroom is actually a form of human
"Overload behaviour.” The instinctual part of the brain kicking in. In addition, Coleman’s
Emotional Intelligence theory may have a place here—the first response to a situation is
by the heart (emotions), which is primal survival mode. Parrots as well as immature
adults are likely not as self-aware sub-consciously.
Young adults will hopefully mature and grow out of these stages. They can learn that
bad is not always bad, all the time and may actually turn out to be good. We learn to
reason, we learn about how there are areas of grey—not so bad or good. I do try to
explain this to students though. A lesson in life that I have learned too well. As long as
no one dies, there is always a chance that things can get better! My mom used to say
that "if you do not learn to control your feelings, they will control you.” The parrot is the
perfect example of this.
Decisional
Opportunities to dialogue
I suppose these situations do allow for some degree of student/instructor connection.
Some students are open to it, others are not. Some will come to you with their
difficulties, some will not. There are privacy rules in the classroom now that are enforced
by administration. My admin will not disclose anything unless the student does directly.
That includes dangerous health issues to emotional, situational issues. This is a
problem. One would hope that an adult would come forward and be honest about
certain struggles that can affect behaviour or safety in class. But this isn't always the
case. I have had a student come forward recently admitting to the whole classroom that
she "couldn't read". It was shocking and horrible. Why would anyone choose to wait to
tell me something like this? How on earth did someone even get into an educational
facility without basic english comprehension? This whole situation could have been
prevented by student honesty, and administration. Proper student assessment done
beforehand.
Quite often daily class is all about "reading the room". Assessing who is struggling and
having difficulty be actions or attitudes. This is not easy, and has been a trial by fire for
me.
I am learning more to ask "how are you?" Daily check-ins. Daily body language
assessments. Reading facial expressions. As well as crisis management and how to
preempt emotional breakdowns before they happen. Encouraging students to come
forward with difficulties before hand—and not just hearing about it on Teacher
evaluations as negatives.
I’m learning an age old saying......Its all about them.......
An experienced teacher once told me this. Not to take things personally. But reflect back
to the situation. In the end it speaks more to a student’s experiences and maturity. And
as instructors, one has to separate yourself from it, or you end up with a lot of baggage.
How do we as instructors disengage after the day is done? We need to have lives
outside the classroom as well.
A final note about the Pandemic. There certainly is the implication that this societal and
public health crisis has had a lasting emotional, mental result on people of all ages.
Financial, mental and emotional insecurity. Food scarcity, continual home instability in
this province. A lack of mental and social support. Isolation. Unpredictability. And the
effect of being plugged in to the social media 24/7. The lasting result of this period will
be something that we will see over the next decade. Students are unable to unplug
from social media in the classroom. It is a fight everyday. Fake perfect lives of people
on the internet. It creates fake people, fake expectations, and untrue realities. Which in
turns creates more insecurity. As no one can measure up to these fake lives. Turn off
the phone and learn to converse with people again! Develop real relationships. Learn
to handle conflicts, emotions, and difficult situations. This in turn creates confidence,
stability and resiliency as students strive to become mature individuals that think for
themselves, while acting accordingly.
References
Ansorge R., Gatta F., Gopal A., Piaget Stages of Development. Https://
www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-developement.
Bekoff. M. (2000), Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures: Current
interdisciplinary research provides compelling evidence that many animals experience
such emotions as joy, fear, love, despair and grief-we are not alone. Http://
academic.oup.com/bscience/article/50/10/861/233998
Cherry K., Understanding Developmental Psychology. https://www.very well mind.com/
developemental-psychology-4157180.
Malik F., Marwaha R. (2018) Developmental Stages of Social Emotional Development in
Children. Study Guide, StataPearls Publishing, Treasure Island, FL. Https://
europepmc.org/article/nbk/nbk534819.
Parrot Kindergarten-Stop guessing and start talking. Website, parrotkindergarten.com.
Pepperberg I.M. (2011), Emotional Birds-Or Advanced Cognitive Processing? Https://
typeset.io/papers/emotional-birds-or-advanced-cognitive-processing-34cy42v8sz.
Sharan B., Merriam & Laura L. Bierema (2014), Adult Learning, Linking Theory and
Practice. San Francisco, CA. (pg 170-182), Jossey-Bass.
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