Principle 6: Emotion is the fuel for skill building.
To foster learning, start with emotion.
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about constrained and unconstrained skills for people that run, fund, and assist organizations that teach and serve kids. This post is part of a series that describes 14 key principles of skill building I identified from the Science of Learning and Development. (Especially Dynamic Skill Theory.) Like everything on this Substack, this post is a work-in-progress. I will make updates as needed. Citations are included at the end. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
Last updated: June 4, 2025
Key Takeaway
Skill is the ability to think and act in an organized way in a specific context (Immordino-Yang and Fischer, 2010). “To foster learning, start with emotion” (Mascolo, 2020). Children’s feelings impact their thoughts and actions. We can help children build complex skills by connecting facts and procedures we want them to learn with “intrinsically emotional, subjective and meaningful experiences” (Immordino-Yang, 2016).
“It is the emotional dimensions of knowledge that allow people to call up memories and skills that are relevant to whatever task is at hand. Without the appropriate emotions, individuals may have knowledge but they likely won’t be able to use it effectively when the situation requires. Emotions are the rudder that steers thinking.” (Immordino-Yang and Damasio, 2007)
“It is neurobiologically impossible to build memories, engage complex thoughts, or make meaningful decisions without emotion. The brain is metabolically expensive. We don’t waste energy and oxygen thinking about things that don’t matter to us. We only think deeply about things we care about.” (Immordino-Yang, 2016)
Emotions are critical to human life; they literally help keep us alive. Fear keeps us from falling off cliffs. Disgust stops us from eating rotten food. Romantic love drives us to pair up and have children. Familial love compels us to create bonds with and care for our children (Immordino-Yang, 2016).
Human emotions such as anger, fear, happiness, and sadness have cognitive and physical dimensions. They engage brain systems for cognition (e.g. fight or flight, memories) and body regulation (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate, etc.) (Immordino-Yang & Sylvan, 2010).
Emotions are both internally-driven and externally triggered. Emotions can be positive or negative–joy, pride, relief, anxiety, anger, hopelessness (Pekrun, 2017). Emotions such as pride, joy, admiration, contempt, and envy can be externally triggered by social interactions with others (Hareli & Parkinson, 2008, Immordino-Yang, 2011; Pekrun, 2017).
Emotion helps build skills by serving as a “rudder” for thinking (Immordino-Yang and Damasio, 2007). It helps guide and direct our attention, thoughts, and behavior (Fischer & Bidell, 2006; Mascolo & Fischer, 2010; Mascolo, 2020; Hardway, 2020).
Emotion helps us recognize and call up relevant information – such as which procedure to use to solve a math problem. Success in subjects we tend to think of as purely rational – like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – depends upon making emotional connections between concepts. Emotion helps engage the brain networks that manage attention, motivation, and evaluation of potential solutions (Immordino-Yang & Faeth, 2010; Immordino-Yang, 2011).
Emotion is not an “add-on” to cognitive skills (Immordino-Yang, 2016). Cognition is “emotion-dependent”; cognition and emotion work together (Pekrun, 2017). Emotion is the fuel for interests, motivation, and purpose.
Emotion helps us remember and apply what we learn. Much of educators’ focus in the classroom–student learning, focused attention, problem solving, comprehension, student motivation, social engagement–”are both profoundly affected by emotion and are subsumed within the process of emotion” (Immordino-Yang and Damasio, 2007).
“Emotions such as interest, anxiety, frustration, excitement, or a sense of awe in beholding beauty become a dimension of the skill itself” (Immordino-Yang, 2016). In this way, academic activities are never “emotionally neutral” (Immordino-Yang and Faeth, 2010). There is no aspect of skill building that is not dependent upon and affected by emotion.
Takeaway: “To foster learning, start with emotion” (Mascolo, 2020). Children’s feelings impact their thoughts and actions. We can help children build complex skills by connecting facts and procedures we want them to learn with “intrinsically emotional, subjective and meaningful experiences” (Immordino-Yang, 2016).
But wait, there’s more
Works Cited
Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). Dynamic development of action and thought. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 313–399). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hardway, C. (2020). Of interest and engagement: The emotional force of learning and development. In M. F. Mascolo & T. R. Bidell (Eds.), Handbook of integrative developmental science: Essays in honor of Kurt W. Fischer (pp. 232-261). Routledge.
Hareli, S., & Parkinson, B. (2008). What’s Social About Social Emotions? Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38(2), 131–156.
Immordino‐Yang, M. H. (2011). Implications of affective and social neuroscience for educational theory. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 98–103.
Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience. W. W. Norton & Company.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Faeth, M. (2010). The role of emotion and skilled intuition in learning. In D. A. Sousa (Ed.), Mind, brain, and education: Neuroscience implications for the classroom (pp. 67–81). Solution Tree Press.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). Neuroscience bases of learning. In V. G. Aukrust (Ed.), International encyclopedia of education (3rd Edition, pp. 310–316). Elsevier.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Sylvan, L. (2010). Admiration for virtue: Neuroscientific perspectives on a motivating emotion. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 35(2), 110–115.
Mascolo, M. F. (2020). Dynamic skill theory: An integrative model of psychological development. In M. F. Mascolo & T. R. Bidell (Eds.), Handbook of integrative developmental science: Essays in honor of Kurt W. Fischer (pp. 91–135). Routledge.
Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). The dynamic development of thinking, feeling, and acting over the lifespan. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of life-span development (Vol. 1, pp. 149–194). Wiley.
Pekrun, R. (2017). Achievement emotions. In A. J. Elliot, C. S. Dweck, & D. S. Yeager (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation: Theory and application (Second). The Guilford Press.