The Emotional Experience of Learning and Teaching

Our learning in infancy, and for a considerable period afterwards, takes place in a dependent relationship to another human being. The quality of this relationship is vitally important for our development, since it deeply influences the hopefulness required to remain curious and open to new experiences, and the capacity to perceive connections and to discover their meanings.This book examines the relationship between student and teacher in a way that will be of help to teachers at every level of the education system, from infant school through to university. It heightens the reader's awareness of the emotional factors that enter into the process of learning and teaching, and aims at a better understanding of the nature of the interactions between student and teacher. The authors examine the hopes and fears with which teachers confront their task and consider how these affect their role of facilitators of the pupils' development. Based on the work done with groups of teachers attending the Tavistock Clinic, the book demonstrates how insights derived from the psychoanalytic study of the mind can heighten the understanding of the learning relationship and help teachers to bear stressful situations and find deeper satisfaction in their roles as educators.