Episode 39: How the Science of Emotion Can Help You Re-Energize Your Lectures and Enhance Student Motivation with Dr. Sarah Rose Cavanagh

Description: Our guest for episode 39 of the Lecture Breakers podcast is Dr. Sarah Rose Cavanagh. She’s here to talk with us about how the science of emotion can help you re-energize your lectures and enhance student motivation.

What I appreciate about Sarah’s work is how she aligns motivation with purpose, choice, and values. And emotion is connected to all of these things.

Sarah says, “emotions are why we learn” and when we can tap into those emotions in our lectures, then we can harness the power of emotions in teaching and create more meaningful and engaging learning experiences.

We also talk about what to do if your course content goes against students' values and what to do to help them regulate their emotions so we can have productive conversations in the classroom.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The relationship between emotions, goals, values, and motivation and why it matters in teaching and learning.
  
  
• What types of teaching and learning strategies tap into emotions. 
  
  
• How to think about "triple layers of value" as a way to tap into students' values to enhance student motivation, engagement, and connection.
  
  
• What to consider if your course content goes against students' values and what to do about managing difficult dialogue in the classroom.
  
  
• What to do if emotions get in the way or interfere with learning.
  
  
• How to help students recognize and regulate their emotions in classroom situations.
  
  

Show Notes

• Learn more about Sarah on her website.
• Get Sarah's books: The Spark of Learning* and Hivemind*.
• Watch Dan Pink's TED talk about motivation.
  
  
• Learn more about Cyndi Kernahan's work on teaching about race in the college classroom.
• Read Viji Sathy and Kelly Hogan's article about how to make your teaching more inclusive.
• Read Sarah's article "All the Classroom's a Stage" about the intersection of teaching and acting.
  
  
• Read Ketina Smith's post about stimulating curiosity in a lecture by using "hooks."
  
• Learn more about the POD conference and website.
• Connect with Sarah on Twitter.
  
  
• Join the free Lecture Breakers Facebook group
• Don't miss an episode! Be sure to subscribe to the show!
  
  
  

Transcript:

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