We all know this isn’t true. Is there a person alive who hasn’t suffered through a class taught by an expert who was boring? And yet, it seems to me that we are reluctant to acknowledge that “emotion” can support or suppress learning. We focus on covering the material instead of creating the atmosphere that is most conducive to learning. Cavanagh argues that we should deliberately attempt to reduce levels of frustration, anxiety, and boredom while increasing our students’ curiosity, interest, and motivation. If we do, student performance will increase, as decades of research in psychology and neuroscience have shown.
Cavanagh, Sarah Rose. The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. West Virginia University Press, 2016, p. 214.