Perspective Chapter: Emotive Cognition Strategies on Enhancing Meaningful Learning among Undergraduate Student-Teachers

Abstract

Learners are in need of knowledge and skill development in the global era to face competition in the challenging environment to sustain themselves. The Education commissions both National and International level emphasize on meaningful learning. The past two decades have seen the emergence of a global movement that calls for a new model of learning for the twenty-first century. The Delors Report also formulated four principles identified as the four pillars of education: Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together and Learning to Be. In this regard, to develop these four pillars of learning and meaningful learning can be possible through the application of emotive cognition strategies among Bachelor of education (B.Ed.) student-teachers. The process of meaningful learning understood specifically on emotional aspect or cognitive aspect. There is a relationship between emotion and cognition in each and every action of an individual. Therefore, the aim of the study is to examine the effect of emotive cognition strategies on enhancing meaningful learning. The investigator has to employ an experimental research to find out the effect of the emotive cognition strategies on enhancing meaningful learning. This strategy design will channelize student-teachers’ in the path of meaningful learning through emotive cognition process.

1. Introduction

Conventionally, emotion and cognition are understood to be independent system. Researches in the areas of cognition, emotion and neurobiological sciences have shown that the relationship between cognition and emotion is both interdependent and extensive. This close link between emotion and cognition leads to a number of insights that have the potential to inform and transform educational practices at all levels from the classroom to the curriculum to educational policy [1]. The application of emotive cognition strategies in teaching develop strong inter-relationship between teachers and learners. It triggers cognitive functions on learning and creates conducive meaningful learning behavior among learners. Emotions play an important role in every cognitive function. The cognitive processes are sensitized, focused, energized, focused, broadened and sharpened by the emotions. Application of emotive cognition strategies in the classroom teaching and learning facilitate meaningful learning among learners. However, deeper understanding is needed in teacher education programme that how student-teachers’ emotive cognition behavior enhance their meaningful learning.

A critical consideration of quality teacher education programme for 21st century requires vigorous practice of emotive cognition strategies application in teaching develops meaningful learning among student-teachers, and it also builds cognitive competencies such as perception and attention, memory and learning, knowledge, decision making, problem solving ability, inter-personal skills and intra-personal skills among the future teachers. So undergraduate teacher education programme required proper implementation of emotive cognition strategies on enhance meaningful learning behavior among student-teachers.

1.1 The regulation of emotions in learning

Emotions show a systematic function in learning and it directly influences the process of learning. For instance, emotions like joy, enthusiasm, and passion gives energy to learners to learn a new or difficult concept in a perfect manner; at the same time emotions like fear, stress, aggression and anxiety create discomfort to the learners. It also disturbs them mentally as well as physically.

In the center of the human brain, the limbic system is present. It consists of the amygdala and hippocampus, historically called the “emotional brain”. Amygdala plays an important role in survival situations and those situations it alerts the body. It stores the primitive emotions of sadness, fear, aggression and joy. It is also associated with emotional memories storage. The hippocampus stores short-term memory as well as the long-term memory. The cognitive function of amygdala is due to the activation of emotional regulation. Hippocampus performs information storage and retrieval functions.

Some two thousand years back Plato pronounced “all learning has an emotional base”, whereas, present facts whole together emphasize that each one’s emotions do re-sculptour neural tissue, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) [2]. Both neurobiologists and educational experts identify learning as an amalgamation of psychological, and emotional cognitive process. All of these three elements are interdependent and inter laced in each of the experience concerning learning. It impacts the functioning of the brain function at the time of learning.

In the learning process, emotions are deemed to a strong as well as an integral part, in day-to-day life. A successful learning takes place when a learner handles his emotions during the learning process. Emotional regulation has an undeviating impact on the process of cognition like the capacity to focus attention, problem solving approach and recovery of memory [3]. Appropriate emotional regulation maintains the functions of cognition to accomplish the goals of the learning process.

The anxiety or stressful emotions make a huge impact both on memory as well as learning process. Studies conducted on brain implied that negative emotions form a sort of hurdle to learning. The parts of the brain such as amygdala, the hippocampus and stress hormones of glucocorticoids, epinephrine and norepinephrine play a vital role in moderating the impact of negative emotions namely, fear and stress both on learning and memory [4]. Simultaneous bodily events such as increased heart rate, perspiration, and elevated adrenaline levels also occur [5, 6], and in turn influence cortical activity. Some level of stress is essential for optimal adaptation to face environmental challenges and lead better cognition and learning, but beyond this modicum it can be damaging, both physically and mentally. When students face negative situations in their teaching-learning process it triggers either fear or stress there by affecting their cognitive functions during their learning.

2. Emotion and cognition are inextricably linked in the brain

All human activities are influenced by emotion and cognition. Emotion and cognition are linked through feelings and thoughts and vice versa. Emotional experiences are also built into the architecture of the developing brain. In fact, emotion and cognition operate seamlessly in the brain [5, 7, 8, 9]. The brain is structured into associations of neurons with specialized properties and functions. Information stimulates the brain to connect the neural network to respond for the information. This actions produce a learning experience. Based on the particular component the learning experiences are labeled cognitive or emotional aspect, but the difference between the two is theoretical since they are integrated and inseparable in the brain.

Emotion and cognition work together to guide learning processes [10, 11]. Children and adolescents have emotionally charged goals, and cognitively appraise the degree to which a situation is hindering or promoting attainment of those goals, which leads to emotional reactions. We can learn to cognitively regulate emotional reactions as well as emotionally regulate the cognitive reactions. It triggers cognitive and affective domains at a time for proper meaning making. Neuro-scientific researches shows that emotional regulation process can reduce negative emotions, which is revealed in both reduced amygdala activation and more positive personal emotional experience [12]. Effective emotional regulation strategies include reinterpretation and depersonalisation. Reinterpretation involves reframing a situation in a more positive way while depersonalisation involves considering a situation objectively rather than taking it personally. Emotional regulation could be helpful for learner. Learner could cognitively regulate his emotional reaction: reinterpreting his past and present emotional and cognitive experience. These regulatory strategies activate in both cognitive and emotional regions of the brain. It reduce the amygdala response and concentrate on cognitive aspects of learning. These process create effective learning environment.

Neuroscience approves that the emotional and cognitive dimensions of learning are inextricably intertwined, the long-standing philosophical debate as to whether learning institutions should be involved in learners’ emotional development becomes irrelevant if learning institutions are accountable for cognitive development, they are habitually involved in emotional development as well [10]. Therefore, educators should guide the development of emotional regulation skills just as they guide the development of meta-cognitive skills.

3. Emotional influence on cognitive functions

Cognitive performance is affected by a person’s emotional status, and neural processing resources are preferentially allocated to events that have emotional significance. Internally and externally triggered emotions modulate information processing in brain regions that mediate various cognitive functions, focusing on perception and attention, learning and memory, decision making and social cognition. From an evolutionary standpoint, neural systems that support thinking developed in part to solve problems that were made salient by emotional considerations, so it is not surprising that emotions are intimately intertwined with higher cortical functions. Thus, information processing always occurs amid a backdrop of emotional states, social goals and motivational incentives. Understanding, in neural terms, how cognitive processes are shaped by these influences will greatly broaden thinking about how the brain works.

4. The integrative and iterative nature of emotional processing

Emotional feelings arise from internal sources as well as from external sources. The limbic regions of the forebrain are in an anatomical position to integrate information from both the internal milieu and the external world and indeed these structures combine information from parallel cortical and subcortical processing pathways. Subcortical afferent pathways that carry information about sensory features of the world and visceral activity can rapidly initiate emotional reactions. Cortical pathways simultaneously elaborate the meaning of such input and compare it to stored knowledge and prior experiences with similar behavioral significance. Afferent sensory pathways converge on particular forebrain structures-including the amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex-and the processing in these regions integrates the relevant information and signals the executive control and premotor regions of the brain to select appropriate behavioral responses. These forebrain structures also send projections back to the sensory and associations cortices involved in pertinent cognitive functions. This interplay between cognitive and emotional-motivational functions is thus a dynamic process [13].

4.1 The central role of the amygdala

Among the key forebrain structures that mediate emotions, the amygdala has been given a special focus of research on emotion-cognition interactions because of its widespread anatomical connections to subcortical structures that control autonomic functions and to cortical areas involved in processing cognitive and emotional information. The amygdala also has extensive interconnections with medial temporal and ventral frontal lobe structures that provide a substrate for emotional enhancement of memory and indirect connections with the dorsal frontoparietal attentional control network via prefrontal cortex (PFC) interfaces, including the anterior cingulate, ventrolateral PFC, and orbitofrontal cortex. The amygdala can thus be thought of as center shuttles information back and forth from subcortical and cortical pathways to initiate and coordinate emotional reactions, including output to the hypothalamus and brainstem autonomic control centers that modulate the visceral changes accompanying various emotional states. The amygdala modulates activity in specific sensory and higher-order cognitive sectors of the cortex in response to biologically significant events that often have emotional consequences. The following paragraphs describe how emotion influences several domains of cognition such as perception, attention, memory, learning, decision making and social cognition [14, 15].

4.2 Emotional influences on perception

Processing sensory information that has potential emotional significance take priority over processing inconsequential sensory information. Such emotional prioritization is accomplished either by automatic (involuntary) or by a voluntary attentional bias. The involuntary perception occurs when information positively or negatively affects the individual. Voluntary attention towards the perception happen according to individuals’ need and interest. The negative emotion such as anxiety, nervousness, fright and panic influence the perception negatively. Positive emotions such as joy, thrill, enjoyment and gratification influence the perception positively. The amygdala obviously overrides a capacity-limited perceptual encoding mechanism that allow emotional stimuli to reach awareness more readily. The anatomical connections between the amygdala and sensory cortices provide one avenue by which emotion might influence perception [16].

4.3 Emotional influence on attention

A first step in the allocation of attention is to alert and orient an individual to the emotional trigger. Emotions arrest ongoing behavior by engaging the autonomic nervous system. Attention of visual and auditory influenced by emotions. For example, in crowded visual scenes or when multiple visual stimuli compete for attention, emotional stimuli bias both the initial direction of eye movement (overt attentional orienting) and the distribution of eye movements over time (sustained attention). These changes in visuospatial exploration ensure that the stimuli of greatest importance at any particular time are preferentially processed. Dichotic listening studies have shown similar effects of emotion on attention in the auditory domain. In these studies, emotional words or words associated with aversive outcomes presented in an unattended audio stream triggers autonomic responses.

4.4 Emotional influence on memory

When we reflect on our lives, we tend to recall that are personally meaningful and emotionally salient. Emotions associated with events or circumstances may have different consequences at different stages of memory processing, including encoding, consolidation and retrieval. Each emotional dimension or emotion category can drive distinct aspects of memory processing. Most research on emotional memory emphasize the transient influence of emotional stimulus content on autonomic physiology, brain activity and behavior that has consequences on memory performance. Two related concepts that are relevant for understanding mood effects on memory are mood-congruent memory and mood-dependent memory. Mood-congruent memory refers to the phenomenon whereby one’s current mood biases the encoding and retrieval of events according to the valence of the mood. Mood-dependence memory refers to the phenomenon whereby material is remembered better when there is a match between the mood at encoding and the mood at retrieval than when mood differs across these two memory stage [17, 18]. All memories have an emotional component associated with them. Consequently almost all thoughts are emotionally based and when we recall them, we are also associating the emotions stored with them. As we recollect our combined memories related to people, place, things, time and events each with its own emotional association [19]. Emotions stimulates every thought process and it also plays an important role in association of memory.

4.5 Emotional influence on learning

Learning from emotional experiences is fundamental to well-being and survival. It is important not only to retain information about emotional events themselves but also to determine which features of the environment predict desired emotional outcome [15]. Emotional states induced by fear or stress directly affect learning and memory. Feelings and emotions have a strong influence on learning [20]. Positive emotions in learning makes the neural network stronger, thicker, faster and more stable. Negative emotions in learning makes the neural network feebler, slow and unstable. The amygdala is an emotional maker of the contents on their way to long-term memory and it has essential functions with anxiety, fear, and joy. It plays a role in recognizing emotional signals in mimic expressions [20] and it also influences learning process of the learner.

4.6 Emotional influence on decision making

Essentially, a decision is a choice among possibilities. It involves deep thinking and actions towards selecting or choosing needed one and neglecting or avoiding unwanted matters. A “good” decision is one that leads to the outcome that best satisfies the decision maker’s goals at the time the decision was made. The central role of emotions in decision making is doubtless in the valuation process, when we evaluate how much we want a consequence to occur. Three categories of emotions-anticipatory, expected and immediate can act on decision making. Anticipatory emotions occur prior to the decision and can help guide decision making by influencing risk and reward valuation. In contrast, expected emotions results from the outcome of decisions, leading to future expectations of feelings based on responses to similar outcomes. Immediate emotions influence decision making simply because they occur at the same time the objective perspective [15].

4.7 Emotional influence on social cognition

Emotions serve important social functions. Indeed, emotions evident in facial expressions, body language and by which we interpret the actions of others. Successful social interactions require that individual map perception to action in order to interpret and predict the behavior of others and respond appropriately. Empathy and sympathy play an important role in social cognition. A better descriptor of emotion understanding is empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and resonate with another individual’s emotional experiences, which leads to a sharing of that person’s feelings. Once an empathetic feeling arises, individual distinguishing their own emotional response from that of the other individual and regulate their responses accordingly [15].

Empathy has both automatic and controlled components and builds on basic social cognitive and emotional processing mechanism. Recognizing emotions in others generates empathy to others. It is a kind of self-regulation process to realize and recognize others feelings and moods. This understanding makes interpersonal relationship with others. “You need to understand your own feelings to understand the feelings of others,” [21]. This emotional behavior important for social cognition. Sympathy is the feelings of pity or concern for another individual’s plight [15]. Sympathy creates to understand another person difficulties but it not give the other person actual emotional feelings.

5. Emotive cognition strategies

The skill of teaching and learning required appropriate usage of emotive cognition strategies. Purves et al. says “Emotive cognition refers to emotions modulate information processing in brain regions that mediate various cognitive functions, focusing on perception and attention, learning and memory, and decision making” [15]. Emotive cognition strategies stimulates joy, hope and pride as well as cognition of the learner. In same way cognition have strong influence on emotional functions. Application of these strategies in classroom teaching and learning reduce the students’ negative emotions and increase positive emotions. This process canalize cognitive functions to achieve the goal. Systematic interaction and connections of affective and cognitive domains while teaching produce high quality of teaching and learning among learns.

Usually, cognition and emotion are understood to be independent systems; however, research in the cognitive and neurobiological sciences has shown that the relationship between cognition and emotion is both interdependent and extensive [1]. Recent advances in neuroscience suggest that attention and memory, the two important cognitive components of learning, are profoundly affected by emotions [22]. The balanced emotional state of the mind concentrate on cognitive aspects of thinking and actions. This condition cognitive scientists call “working memory”. It enables the mind to a particular task to be proficient. It also functions quality in mental life, effort in intellectual activity and logical plan [23]. Working memory interacts closely with cognitive functions; for instance, it is intimately linked to perception and long term memory, which provide most of its input and content [15]. In this way the strategies of emotive cognition function while teaching and learning. Moreover, it enhances the teaching methods of the teacher and learning behaviors of the learner.

6. Cognitive functions in meaningful learning

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, skill and behavior modification of the individual according to the environment. The world in the 21st century insists that teaching and learning should be modified according to the need of the society. In these circumstances the learners have to practice their learning strategies like, higher-order thinking skills, deeper learning habits, complex thinking, emotive cognition, metacognition, communication skills and creative thinking in the learning of every concept. The teacher and the student have to understand the learning concepts in a scientific way. The science behind these concepts is that how learning occurs meaningfully.

Scientist Koizumi defines learning as a “process by which the brain reacts to stimuli by making neuronal connections that act as an information processing circuit and provide information storage” [24]. The meaningful learning process consists of cognitive functions such as perception, attention, learning, memory, problem solving and social cognition. The teacher as well as the leaners have to follow all these steps in their learning both inside as well as outside the classroom. If the teaching-leaning process fulfills all the necessary steps in learning, then the learning will become meaningful.

6.1 Cognitive functions

Cognition plays a vital role in processing the information network function in the brain. Information is received and attended by our five senses. Depending upon the nature of information it is transmitted to visual, auditory, smell, taste and somatic-sensory organs for recognition. It is processed for cognition, then it is stored in short-term or long-term memory. This process is significantly required in every learning activity. The cognitive perspective on learning is based on the assumption that knowledge acquisition lies at the very heart of learning. Once learners acquire new information in learning environments, they are supposed to use that information in completely different situations later in life. This is only possible if they have understood it correctly and stored it in a well-organized manner in their long-term memory (OECD) [25]. Cognitive functions such as decision making, problem solving ability, inductive and deductive reasoning and social cognition enhance learning ability.

Cognition encompasses the individual to sense himself and the world, through mental actions and language. Meaningful learning is a systematic cognitive process to understand the difficult concept for mental execution and representation, rather than storage and retrieval of information. Thinking, language (verbal or sign) and doing things are thus intimately inter-twined National Council of Educational Training and Research (NCERT) [26].

7. Meaningful learning

Today’s field of education includes the relevant concept of “meaningful learning”, which, for all aspects of learning, requires a different attitude than the traditional educational thought patterns. Through meaningful learning, the education system faces not only a challenge and an opportunity, but possesses the practical means to realize its commitment to the appropriate growth and empowerment of future generations [27]. Generally, meaningful learning refers to the intentional effort involved in relating new information to prior knowledge, especially new knowledge that is relevant to or experiential for the individual [28]. Meaningful learning were classified based on three criteria: (1) relevant prior knowledge of the student, (2) meaningful material organized by the teacher to connect to this prior knowledge, and (3) the conscious choice of the student to make connections between the prior knowledge and the new meaningful material. Integration between achievements of cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains can lead to meaningful learning [29, 30]. When a student is engaged in a learning activity and attempting to make sense of a new experience, the brain is inherently recalling previous feelings as well as previous thoughts and actions [31].

Meaningful learning connect the old information to the new information for understanding the difficult concept. It makes the learner in active and constrictive practices, which allow students to develop knowledge, reflects on the activities and articulates the information that are gained in a project [32, 33, 34, 35]. It is also intentional and authentic by whom students are motivated towards a goal. Meanwhile, educators should plan their lessons and specify the outcomes that the students need to achieve. According to Meyers, there are three strategies for creating meaningful learning experiences such as (i) assessing early and often, (ii) letting the students get their feet wet, and (iii) welcoming student input in assignment and content [36]. There are five attributes of meaningful learning which are (i) cooperative learning, (ii) active learning, (iii) constructive learning, (iv) authentic learning and (v). Implementation these attributes with emotive cognition strategies in undergraduate teacher education programme enhance their meaningful learning behavior.

8. Meaningful learning in teacher education

Teacher education and teachers’ professional development have regularly raised the problems of teacher education preparing teachers for delivering a predetermined curriculum instead of supporting their critical reflection and thinking skills [37, 38].

Meaningful learning practices in teacher education induce student-teachers to think logically, critical enquiry skills, individual and social understanding, solve problem and higher level cognitive functions. However, deeper understanding is needed for teacher education students’ perception of meaningful learning. Student-teachers may construct their identity as teachers based on their processes of meaning making [39, 40]. Thus, the quality of their learning is an important element in their development as teachers and their teacher identity, as individual learning is naturally linked with changes in social role and identity. Meaningful learning occurs through learning habit, inside the classroom, outside the classroom and metacognitive behavior in learning. Undergraduate teacher education programme need to train their student-teachers meaningful learning behavior on above mentioned dimensions. It is explained in the following sections.

8.1 Learning habit

Learners have their own way of learning methods and techniques. These strategies develops the learning habit among learner. Every learner differ in their learning habit as well as their nature of learning preferences. The job of a teacher to cultivate the habit of new learning behavior, experience and ability to connect learned information with new information for meaningful learning. Developing appropriate leaning habit among learners enrich their knowledge, skills and behavior. Layng defines learning habits as the convergence of competencies in patterns of behavior aimed at learning [41]. The individual’s learning habit is interrelated to cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and social/emotional behavior. Building these behaviors enhance individual learning habit.

8.2 Learning inside the classroom

In classroom learners acquire knowledge and skills through cognitive and emotional involvement. The cognitive and motivational quality of classroom instruction is extremely important for students’ learning. Well-structured, clear instruction and use of moderately challenging tasks promotes students understanding. As a result, students’ experience influences on increase of self-confidence and enjoyment, and a reeducation of boredom and anxiety. The motivational quality of instruction influences the perceived value of learning, thereby promoting enjoyment and reducing boredom. Motivational quality involves meaningful tasks that catch and hold students’ interest and attention towards their attainment of learning goal. Teacher emotions influence students’ learning. Teachers’ positive emotions can promote students’ enjoyment of learning within the classroom and can have long-lasting effects on the value of learning perceived by students, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) [42]. Therefore, appropriate cognitive and emotional applications in classroom teaching can enhance students’ meaningful learning.

8.3 Learning outside the classroom

Learning takes place outside the classroom also. Learning outside the classroom is the use of places other than the classroom for teaching and learning. Learners observe, practice and get experience outside the classroom based on what they have learned inside the classroom. Learners can learn outside the class room. Some learns feel hard to engage inside the classroom environment. They learn freely or interestingly with their peer group outside the classroom. They interact, discuss, collaborate, argue and express positive and negative feelings and engage the self-learning behavior while learning outside the classroom. Learning outside the classroom can happen at almost any time and almost anywhere – outdoors or indoors: in the institutional grounds, in museums and art galleries, field trip or elsewhere in the world. Students can participate in debates even outside the class. They also participate in writing and oratory competition, inter and intra cultural events and active role in team projects outside the class. Learning outside the classroom creates progressive experiences and it develops knowledge and skills among learners. It is a powerful tool that is proven to raise attainment, strengthen social, emotional and personal development and contributes to the health and wellbeing of the learners.

8.4 Metacognitive behavior in learning

Metacognition is defined as individuals’ knowledge about their cognitive behaviors or arranging these behaviors through the learning process [43, 44]. Metacognitive knowledge and skills are essential in effective learning. Metacognitive knowledge can be described as the knowledge, awareness, and deeper understanding of one’s own cognitive processes and products [45]. Metacognitive skills can be defined as learning how to learn [46]. Metacognition refers to the knowledge one possesses about cognitive processes, monitoring and regulating these cognitive processes in order to serve a concrete goal [47]. With more detailed expression, it can be said that metacognition involves knowledge about cognitive process, and monitoring and controlling of this process [48, 49]. It plays important role in process of learning. Learners’ metacognitive behavior in learning enables their regulation in cognitive process, monitoring, understanding ability and problem solving skills. It generates meaningful learning among learners.

8.5 Meaningful internship and school experience

Pre-service teacher education programme should provide and engage meaningful learning internship and school experience. During the internship training programme pre-service teachers need to understand the curriculum, pedagogical practice, classroom climate and appropriate usage of teaching and learning aids. They should understand the cognitive, emotional, social and physiological aspects of learners and teaching-learning environment. Through internship student-teachers train to design, organize, and conduct meaningful classroom activates, critically reflect upon their own practices through observations, record keeping and evaluation of students and evaluation himself. Pre-service teachers should get meaningful school experience through observing the in-service teachers while teaching in their classroom. It create awareness among student-teachers regarding classroom management, learners cognitive engagement, in-service teacher emotional management and learners emotional expressions. These practices proved pre-service teachers to understand the school experience and it will helpful for regular teacher in a school. National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE) [50].

To enhance meaningful learning among undergraduate student-teachers, the teacher education programme should have proper emotive cognition strategies application in their programme. When the student-teachers get meaningful learning experience during their pre-service training, definitely they will inculcate the behavior of meaningful learning in their learners.

9. Statement of the problem

Before being the ICSSR PDF Scholar in Pondicherry University, the teacher educator has worked as a school teacher for 2 years and teacher educator in college of education for 4 years. At those years, in his observation felt that in-service teachers as well as student-teachers were mechanical in their nature of work. Moreover, he observed the fact that the teachers and student-teachers were very less aware about the emotive cognition strategies in their teaching; the effect of emotions in cognitive functions and its influence on meaningful learning. They know little about state of emotions experienced by the students in the academic settings and their emotions in different academic situations such as learning in classroom, taking tests and exams, maintaining inter-personal relationship, completing assignments and projects. Positive activation emotions such as enjoyment, pride and hope, negative activation emotions of anger, shame and anxiety modulate the cognitive functions. Positive deactivating emotions such as relaxation, relief and contentment, negative deactivation emotions of boredom, disappointment and hopelessness also influence the cognitive functions. The effect of these four groups of emotions on teaching and students’ meaningful learning have not been recognized in teacher education programme. In teacher education programme, understanding students’ experiences in meaningful learning is essential for teacher educators to know how emotive cognition plays an impotent role in meaningful learning.

Teachers and student-teachers are emphasized to prepare teaching aids and design their teaching strategies to activate the cognitive domain of learners. They gave less importance or rather neglected in activating the affective domain while teaching and meaningful learning. As a consequence the researcher has realized the need for sensitizing these problems among student-teachers to think and reflect on the integration of affective and cognitive domains in their meaningful learning. The teacher education programme needs to implement the emotive cognition strategies among student-teachers. This application develops the empathy, interest, enjoyment, responsibility, problem solving ability, social cognition and meaningful learning among student-teachers. Teacher education institutions and the teacher educators are not much aware about emotive cognition strategies applications in their teaching. To understand the emotive cognition strategies on enhancing meaningful learning in teacher education programme is also a problem among teacher educators and student-teachers.

A critical consideration of quality teacher education programme for 21st century requires vigorous practice of emotive cognition strategies application in teaching develops meaningful learning among student-teachers, and it also builds cognitive competencies such as perception and attention, memory and learning, knowledge, decision making, problem solving ability, inter-personal skills and intra-personal skills among the future teachers [51].

10. Need for the study

Teaching is an art to impart knowledge skills and inculcate behavior among learners. It requires various tactics to enhance learning. More understanding is needed of how learners personally construe and construct their learning experiences [40, 52]. Especially in teacher education programmes, the provision of meaningful learning experiences for students is considered critical for ensuring the student-teachers understand what is to be learned [53]. Teacher education programme required investigation on meaningful learning among student-teachers to gain proper understanding about how student-teachers construct their knowledge, skills and behavior. This understanding could help educational policy makers and teacher educator to develop courses and strategies to enables richer and more relevant learning among student-teachers [54]. Nowadays there is awareness and increasing usage of the term “emotional intelligence”. Emotional knowledge is an important part in teaching and so it is greatly needed to understand teaching and learning. Emotions have a profound influence on learners’ perception, attention, memory and learning.

Traditionally, cognition and emotion are believed to be independent systems; however, research in the cognitive and neurobiological sciences have shown that the relationship between cognition and emotion is both interdependent and extensive. This intimate connection between emotion and cognition leads to a number of insights that have the potential to inform and transform educational practices at all levels from the classroom to the curriculum to educational policy [1]. The application of emotive cognition strategies in teaching develops strong inter-relationship between teachers and learners. It triggers cognitive functions on learning and creates conducive meaningful learning behavior among learners. Emotions play an important role in every cognitive function. The cognitive processes are sensitized, focused, invigorated, directed, broadened and sharpened by the emotions. The application of emotive cognition strategies in the classroom teaching and learning triggers the learners’ feelings internally and externally towards various mental functions. Teachers also agree that students’ participation in the class to learn meaningfully when they feel good about themselves and their lives. Emotions act as filters to form learners’ desires, furnish learners capacities and to a large extent rule their immediate thoughts. However, deeper understanding is needed in teacher education programme that how student-teachers’ emotive cognition behavior enhances their meaningful learning. In the area of teaching and learning many researches have been conducted separately on emotions or cognition aspects. But, a few researches have been conducted in combination with affective and cognitive domains. In this research, undergraduate student-teachers’ affective and cognitive domains have been integrated to enhance their meaningful learning and it will produce a successful competent teacher with excellence for future learners.

11. Significance of the study

Students have to be prepared to solve the problems and skillfully to do their work towards fulfilling the 21st century requirement. Learners need to develop their own competencies to face any kind of difficult situations and they have to show their ability in all aspects how they are unique and competent from others. Developing competencies possible through meaningful learning application in every curriculum transaction. In this perspective undergraduate student-teachers have been trained through emotive cognition intervention programme on enhancing meaningful learning among future teachers. Cultivating meaningful learning create clear knowledge, skills and appropriate behavior modification to the learner. Meaningful learning develop proper understanding, experience and thinking ability among student-teachers. Understanding these concepts can help teacher educators to design a meaningful instructional practices to make learning richer and relevant. In teacher education programme connecting cognitive and affective domains while teaching-learning facilitate student-teachers meaningful learning. In this prospect emotive cognition strategies plays vital role in student-teachers meaningful learning. The application of positive emotions such as hope, happiness, excitement, joy, thrill and amazement in teaching rises cognitive functions of perception, attention, learning, memory, decision making, problem solving ability and social cognition of the learners. Negative emotions declines cognitive functions.

In this study emotive cognition intervention programme contains full of positive emotional strategies to stimulate undergraduate student-teachers’ cognitive functions on meaningful learning behavior on attention towards learning, consciousness in their thoughts and emotions, perception of self-awareness, self-reflection, self-contemplation and self-observation, ability of easy to memorize the new concepts, develop professional skills, inter-personal relationship ability, habits of acquire general knowledge, ability of decision making and attaining the ability in nature of survival. All these anticipated outcome can be achieved by employing emotive cognition intervention programme. This treatment programme promote teacher education programme in a significant way.

12. Objectives of the study

The following objectives for investigation.

• To find out the existing level of emotive cognition strategies application in teaching-learning in B.Ed. class.

• To find out the existing level of meaningful learning behavior among B.Ed. student-teachers of the sample.

• To find out the level of Emotive Cognition Strategies Application among B.Ed. student-teachers after implementing emotive cognition intervention programme.

• To find out the level of Meaningful Learning behavior among B.Ed. student-teachers after implementing emotive cognition intervention programme.

• To find out the relationship between Emotive Cognition Strategies Application and Meaningful Learning behavior of B.Ed. student-teachers.

• B.Ed. student-teachers’ meaningful learning will be predicted through emotive cognition strategies application.

13. Assumptions of the study

• B.Ed. Programme incorporates strategy application in teacher preparation.

• Enhancement of meaningful learning could be possible through emotive cognition strategies application.

• It is possible to design and structure emotive cognition strategy application modeling to enhance meaningful learning.

14. Research method

Since experiment is considered to be the scientifically sophisticated research method, the teacher educator need to adopt experimental method to study the operationalizing emotive cognition strategies on enhancing meaningful learning among B.Ed. student -teachers.

The teacher educator has to enhance meaningful learning among B.Ed. student-teachers through the intervention of Emotive Cognition strategies Application in Teaching. Two groups needed, one as the Experimental and the other as the Control group that had been under the traditional way of teaching.

In this study the teacher educator has to adopt Experimental design – Pre test – Post test – Control group design [55].

15. Field implementation Programme

The teacher educator has to implement the designed treatment to the experimental group. During the treatment, emotive cognition strategies were applied in classroom teaching-learning process. The lesson plan includes emotive cognition strategies application in every classroom teaching. Interacting and collaborating with the learners enthusiastically create consciousness in learning it sustain the learner attentive towards the information. Asking learners past joyful learning experience triggers thinking about learned concept to facilitate link prior knowledge with new knowledge this process functioning towards meaningful learning. Training the learners on right decision making to schedule their learning programme formulates processing thinking for decision making. It empower the learner in decision making. Training students to help each other in their learning inculcates the behavior of understanding peers’ thought. This process enrich inter-personal relationships among learners. Providing situations for learners to apply logic and solve problems induces problem solving ability in their learning as well as real life situations. Integrating students’ joyful episodes in their learning to enhance their formation of concepts makes the memory and recognizing ability. These strategies triggers the positive emotions of enjoyment, pride, hope and happiness and it modulate cognitive functions of the learners’ perception, attention, learning, memory, decision making and social cognition. Implementation of all these strategies enhance undergraduate student-teachers meaningful learning behavior (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Ananda Kumar’s model on operationalizing emotive cognition strategies on enhancing meaningful learning among undergraduate student-teachers.

16. Discussion

The purpose of the study is to find out the effect of emotive cognition strategies on enhancing meaningful learning among B.Ed. student-teachers. The application of emotive cognition strategies among B.Ed. student-teachers stimulated their emotive cognition towards the enhancement of meaningful learning behavior.

Emotions have strong influence on cognitive functions such as perception and attention, learning and memory, decision making and social cognition. The frequent interaction of affective and conative domains in teaching trigger’s high cognitive ability on student’s goal setting and their good academic achievement. From the perspective of constructivist theories, emotion results from learning assemblies of relevant perceptual, cognitive, interoceptive, and motor processes in specific situations. Across emotional experiences over time, learned assemblies of processes accumulate in memory that later underlie emotional experiences in similar situations [56]. Matthius Laukenmann et al. who found that wellbeing and interest as cognitive emotional construct, play a significant role in achievement [57]. Allyson P. Mackey et al. who worked found that the Cognitive Skill Instruction (CSI) group improved significantly more than the control group on the cognitive composite [58].

Perception is the subjective awareness of any aspect of the external or internal environment. Positive emotions such as joy, thrill, enjoyment and gratification influence perception positively. Perception triggers cognitive function externally as well as internally in each of the learning process. It involves the analysis of sensory information. External perception occurs through five sensory organs and it transmits the information to the specific cortical region of the brain. Every new learning and understanding occurs through this sensory information processing. Perception plays a vital role in individual awareness on receiving and acquiring any new information. Maria Chiara Passolunghi who found that experienced emotional engagement in teacher–student and peer group relations had significant indirect effects on students’ perceived cognitive engagement [59].

Attention is an essential neurobiological function that allows humans to continually and dynamically select the most important or interesting stimuli in the external or internal environment. A first step in the allocation of attention is to alert and orient an individual to emotional trigger. Emotions arrest ongoing behavior by engaging the autonomic nervous system. Attention to visual and auditory stimulus is influenced by emotions. When learners sustain their attention towards their learning, the information will successfully be transmitted to brain and it will be received, recognized and analyzed for clarity, and then the information will be stored in the brain. It is concurred with the research findings of Luigina Mortari who worked on ‘Emotion and Education: Reflecting on the Emotional Experience Emotion and Education’. They got students’ reflections. A student reflected “First of all, I have learned to pay more attention to what happens to me every day.” (Paying attention to oneself); “I have learned to pay more attention to what each emotion arouses in me” (Understanding the quality of one’s emotional life) [60].

Memory is the process of recalling, remembering and retrieving the previously learned information by the learners. When we reflect on our lives, we tend to recall the events that are personally meaningful and emotionally salient. Emotions associated with events or circumstances may have different consequences at different stages of memory processing, including encoding, consolidation and retrieval. Each emotional dimension or emotion category can drive distinct aspects of memory processing. Emotions stimulates every thought process and it also plays an important role in association of memory. Memory regulates the mental process of the learners to achieve the learning goal for obtaining knowledge, developing skills and cultivating their memory processing behaviors. It is concurred with the research findings of Maria Chiara Passolunghi who found that a significant difference between groups was shown in correct recall of the target words and correct recall of the series [59].

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, skill and behavior modification of the individual according to the environment. Learning from emotional experiences is fundamental to well-being and survival. It is important not only to retain information about emotional events themselves but also to determine which features of the environment predict desired emotional outcome. Emotions strongly influence the learning process. Positive emotions such as enjoyment, pride, hope and happiness have positive effects on learners’ cognitive function in meaningful learning. Negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, grief and shame can strongly inhibit on learners’ cognitive process while learning. It is concurred with the research findings of Matthius Laukenmann et al. who found that the high achievers experience more joy and interest in physics than low achievers [57]. Karen C. H. Zhoca et al. found that Emotional Intelligence was significantly correlated with self-directed learning [61].

Decision making is the high level cognitive process. It contains higher-order thinking skills to solve the problem. It comprises conscious thought process for the purpose of selecting and acting on right path to attain the anticipated goal. A “good” decision is one that leads to the outcome that best satisfies the decision maker’s goals at the time the decision was made. The central role of emotions in decision making is doubtless in the valuation process, when we evaluate how much we want a consequence to occur. Three categories of emotions-anticipatory, expected and immediate can act on decision making. It is concurred with the research findings of Maria Poulou & Brahm Norwich who worked on cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses to students with emotional and behavioral difficulties: a model of decision-making. The results revealed that causal attributions as predictors of emotional and cognitive responses to emotional and behavioral difficulties [62].

Social cognition is the process of interpersonal behavior of an individual where the individual understands his own thoughts and feelings and able to understand feelings and thoughts of others. This interpersonal behavior generates social cognition. Emotions serve important social functions. Indeed, emotions are evident in facial expressions, body language and by which we interpret the actions of others. Successful social interactions require individual map perception to action in order to interpret and predict the behavior of others and respond appropriately. It is concurred with the research findings of Stare Kaviani & Zohre Saadatmand who found that the difference between interpersonal, adaptability, and general mood scores of emotional intelligence in control and experimental groups is statistically significant [63].

Today’s field of education recognized the important of “meaningful learning” concept in all aspects of learning. Meaningful learning processed through several emotional and cognitive functions. It also required different teaching and learning strategies while transacting the curriculum. Teacher education and teachers’ professional development have regularly raised the problems of teacher education preparing teachers for delivering a predetermined curriculum instead of supporting their critical reflection and thinking skills [37, 64]. Meaningful learning occurs through learning habit, both inside the classroom and outside the classroom and metacognitive behavior in learning. Therefore the researcher designed a ‘Model on Emotive Cognition Strategy on Enhancing Meaningful Leaning among B.Ed. Student-Teachers’. It is concurred with the research findings of Emma Kostiainen et al. who found that necessary to generate meaningful learning experience in the context of teacher education: (1) Course design; (2) Gaining strong experience; and (3) Broad spectrum of emotions [65].

Each student have his own personal interest to decide what to learn, when to learn, what methods to apply, how to learn and how much effort to invest to learn a difficult concept. The learning habit differ from individual to individual. Therefore, the responsibility of a teacher is to help the student to develop appropriate learning a habit.

The individual’s learning habit is interrelated to cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and social/emotional behavior. Building these behaviors enhance individual learning habit. It is concurred with the research findings of Moises Esteban-Guitart et al. who found that 43 significant learning experiences were identified from four young students who recorded their specific learning experiences during a week by means of a significant learning experiences journal and photographs they took themselves [66].

In classroom learners acquire knowledge and skills through cognitive and emotional involvement. The cognitive and motivational quality of classroom instruction is extremely important for students’ learning. Teacher emotions influence students’ learning. Teachers’ positive emotions can promote students’ enjoyment of learning within the classroom and can have long-lasting effects on the value of learning perceived by students [42]. Therefore, appropriate cognitive and emotional applications in classroom teaching can enhance students’ meaningful learning. It is concurred with the research findings of Tamara N. Hrin et al. (2016) who found that the effect of systemic synthesis questions [SSYNQS] on students’ performance and meaningful learning in secondary organic chemistry teaching [67].

Learning takes place outside the classroom also. Learning outside the classroom is the use of places other than the classroom for teaching and learning. Learners observe, practice and get experience outside the classroom based on what they have learned inside the classroom. Learning outside the classroom creates progressive experiences and it develops knowledge and skills among learners. It is a powerful tool that is proven to raise attainment, strengthen social, emotional and personal development and contributes to the health and wellbeing of the learners. It is concurred with the research findings of Leena Aarto-Pesonen and Arja Piirainen (2020) who found that three major learning worlds. The first learning world, the professional awakening, consists of three categories: egocentric learner, expanding professionalism and responsibility for self-development. In the second learning world, transformative community, adult students experience how they are members of learning communities.

Metacognition is defined as individuals’ knowledge about their cognitive behaviors or arranging these behaviors through the learning process [43, 44]. The application of metacognitive strategies in learning triggers higher-order thinking skills among learners. Through metacognition the learner can evaluate himself on what knowledge he has gained in every subject, knowing the present learning progress and experience on every learning process. The systematic practice of metacognition in teaching and learning enhance the learners’ abilities in problem solving, and self-regulated learning. It is concurred with the research findings of Phyllis Baudoin Griffard and James H. Wandersee who found that without cognitive engagement, neither intentional, meaningful learning nor metacognitive awareness can develop [68].

17. Conclusion

Teacher education is a programme in which student-teachers are trained to perform well in their teaching career. In teaching and learning process both teachers and learners experience emotion and cognition enjoyment for meaningful learning. In teacher education important given for cognitive aspect of learning and neglected the emotional aspect of learning process. Therefore, teacher education program needs to integrate cognitive and affective domains in an appropriate way to enhance meaningful learning among student-teacher. Application of emotive cognition strategies in every classroom teaching-learning as well as in entire teacher education program create conducive learning environment. Appropriate emotive cognition strategies application in teaching among student-teachers positively interconnects emotion and cognitive functions in their learning. This process enhances meaningful learning. Therefore, undergraduate teacher education programme needs conscious awareness on emotive cognition strategies to train their student-teachers meaningful leaning behavior. It will also reflect their learners’ to learn meaningfully.