The Intelligence Project

The Teacher's Weltanshauung

Consider the Affective Domain as a form of emotional intelligence

Carlos Esquivel

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The perceptual mismatch in terms of the student role and the teacher is a interesting problem that naturally occurs as the gap between students and teachers is widened by age, interests and values.  It could be as simple as the perception of youth being undeveloped or immature, but if we look at the parties involved as just participants, ignoring the classifications of success and achievement; the two groups at a core are very alike. At the core it would be the human factor that if demonstrated reveals that we are indeed the same. But heaven forbid that our students see us as the same, that we might actually share similar struggles and challenges that our students face. Where does this translate for students in the classroom, it comes in the form of the affective domain.

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 Stratemeyer's essay (see link below) on the affective says,"we have faith in man's mind, but doubt the power of his heart." Why is it that we focus so much and the cognitive ability; on the numbers and letters, structures of analytical data and information? The focus on psychomotor and cognitive domains of learning is very evident as we excel in assessment of knowledge with the cold hands of intellect and analysis. The warmth of familiar phenomena is a risk to high for educators to share as it does indeed close that gap between student and teacher; potentially exposing the truth that we are very alike.

As Stratemeyer suggests through the practice of "solitude and silence in the class", a student may see that a "teacher is primarily a servant who devotes his life to others while joyously attempting to chain the demons that lie within the dark recesses of his being". Stratemeyer's suggestion that students "must be guided through the journey of self-study", might bring this clarity and close to the mismatch; but it's not that easy. The transfer of values indicates that values will be displayed, but displaying them isn't the problem as much as what values are expressed by the leader of the class. 

Love as the transferred phenomena is highly questionable as it is hard to define, but regardless of the ambiguity, it is a absolute necessity to transfer values and knowledge. As Stratemeyer says, "knowing and loving are mutually complementary energies.  Consider that, "Every cognitive behavior has an affective counterpart (Van Valkenburg and Holden 2004)" and also that,"only through caring can students adequately begin the process of cognition (Cardoso, 2003).  Positive phenomena fuels conation and conation develops autonomous learners; the hallmark of a personal teaching efficacy.