Affective Pedagogy: A Case Study Describing the Impact of Affective Instructional Interventions in a Community College Composition Course

William Schutz

Advisor: Kelly Schrum, PhD, Higher Education Program

Committee Members: Jan Arminio, E. Shelley Reid

Research Hall, #402
July 06, 2017, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Abstract:

This dissertation describes how student classroom experiences along with their approaches to learning and perceptions of themselves as writers were impacted when affective instructional interventions emphasizing emotional intelligence were part of a community college English course’s pedagogy. Failure by faculty, as well as policy-making administrators, to address the whole student by neglecting emotion and affect in general has consequences for students in the classroom and beyond. The general purpose of this study was, therefore, to address such a need by gathering and analyzing qualitative data through the methodological approach of case study and to describe the classroom experience of community college English students by illuminating not only how their experience was impacted but also how their approaches to learning along with their perceptions of themselves as writers were impacted when explicit affective teaching practices were emphasized in the course. The results of the study may help other instructors integrate elements of affect into their teaching practice for the sake of impacting their own students and, concurrently, learning in general.