1. The study of emotions has been considered too subjective or immeasurable for modern science. We have not had the technology to measure emotions concretely. Now, neuroscientists are measuring how emotions strengthen synaptic connections in the brain and are demonstrating how educated professionals have developed many more synaptic connections through education.

Advances offer valuable insight in helping us understand how emotions impact learning. Advertisers and sport psychologists use emotions to enhance sales and performance. Our education models do not manage emotions so well:
* we are still using “passive learning” educational models. Developed in the Industrial Age and still used today, they are obsolete for today’s more sophisticated need for educated, innovative knowledge workers
* we are still using one-size-fits-all solutions, not personalized educational models that can help students tap into emotional resources, master emotions, and access true potential, which is key for innovation.
*we are still using primarily cognitive models that overlook the significant impact of emotions on learning and performance, the humanistic approach fuels motivation, persistence, and achievement.

2. Innovation and higher-order thinking in the Information Age is critical. Innovation underpins the growth of nations and depends on education that fosters the achievement of a talented workforce. The Council on Competitiveness shows that we have dropped to second place in world innovation capability. The National Science Board reports a troubling decline in the number of U.S. citizens who are studying in fields that require higher-order thinking skills and innovation. Today’s challenge as a nation is to find solutions that encourage individuals to make learning “a rewarding part of everyday life.” Unfortunately, we are using yesterday’s education models which are not useful for more active-thinking knowledge workers in the Information Age.

The old models encourage passivity by supporting memorization and rule-based learning, one-size-fits-all courses, and sage-on-the-stage instruction. The industrial-age models teach passive learners who lack training for today’s constantly changing, information-seeking world.

3. Education and business leaders must collectively push for a major paradigm shift to meet the information and decision-making needs pulling today's workforce. The lack of systemic change in education is creating a crisis that must be urgently solved. Only 32 percent of all students leave high school prepared for a four-year college” (Gates Foundation, 2004). Of those, 28% require remedial courses. Research suggests that improving thinking and innovation requires a comprehensive understanding of the psychological factors that
impact learning mechanisms and processes. Not understanding these factors results in dissatisfaction, attrition, retention problems, and wasted resources. Systemic change means developing new Information Age models that can use personalized strategies to harness the psychological sources (overlooking our prejudice for
emotionality) to drive learning. Using personalization and just-in-time environments, learners can sense, synthesize, create new knowledge and act upon decisions continuously—emotions fuel this iterative process.

To develop problem-solvers and thinkers who want to become lifelong learners, we need to show them tap into passions and actively involve them in the thinking, decision-making, and innovation process.

4. In creating systemic change for the Information Age, we must deepen our knowledge about individual differences in learning. We must understand why some individuals are more prepared to use their emotions to succeed. Neuroscience research advances make it vitally important that we understand more about the dominant power of emotions on learning, memory, attention, values, and persistence to help those who are less emotionally prepared to learn. We can no longer afford the luxury of overlooking the impact of emotions and need for personalization.

5. Personalized instructional solutions that reliably provide targeted, scalable solutions and infrastructure can help develop more self-motivated, self-directed, and autonomous learners who strategically harness the power of their emotions to innovate. High attrition rates demonstrate that in technologically mediated environments students will fail or drop out if emotional needs are unmet, especially those who are more dependent on instructors and social interaction. Emotion is the trigger that drives the learning process and the mortar that cements new successful learning and performance.

Published with permission by Margaret Martinez, The Training Place, Inc.