Report Teacher Training on emotions in the classroom

Introduction

Increasingly, staff and students are confronted with realities of global uncertainty, climate change, ecological and social decline throughout their study program or research efforts. In many students, this creates various levels of anxiety or emotional despair. Other students may not feel any involvement or sense of responsibility, while this is deemed important in the WUR vision of responsible change makers for science and society. Bringing these realities together in the classroom is challenging and boundary crossing. That is why we decided to organize a teacher training course to explore nature inclusive methods that support sharing, reflection and processing of emotions around global uncertainty, climate change, ecological and social decline/loss/impairment.

It is usually beyond the scope of an academic lecture to address emotional reflection and processing. However, teachers can also no longer ignore the reality of deeper emotional levels reaching the surface in class or in conversation with students. Moreover, addressing emotional reflection and processing aligns with WUR’s ‘whole person’ approach to learning, where personal development of values, motivation, care and responsibility are actively supported in class. This course supported the attending teachers to be better prepared for emotional responses. In three days, this module dove into key concepts, methods and facilitation skills of working with emotions in class.

With 14 participants in total, the group was full and refreshingly diverse: among the participants were teachers, teacher trainers, study advisors, students and others. Immediately, the group shared a feeling of urgency and positive energy. The module was personal and focused on experiential learning: after a day of introduction, the participants were asked to explore their boundaries on the second day. The third day was directed to harvesting inspiration as well as sharing hands-on practices to explore with students.

First day – Planting seeds

After everyone got their coffee and tea, the day started off with a round of introductions. Everyone took the opportunity to share their motivations to take part in the course. One of the most named reasons to join was the experience of seeing many hopeless students and struggling to care for these young people. This motivation was further clarified and nuanced by motivations that were named after.
For example, some participants mentioned struggling themselves with their emotional responses regarding environmental problems and social injustices. In other words, teachers wondered how we can still plan inspiringly, hopefully and optimistically in a world like this. Multiple teachers wondered if they themselves don’t feel hopeful, how they could be inspiring for the students. Another teacher mentioned, ‘we see so many students each year, and they talk with their friends and family. Like that, we can have a big impact as teachers.’

Another motivation that was echoed by many was the realization that many students are very focused on efficiency, cognitive processes and money. The participants felt the need to open up student’s worlds a little, and show them there is more to care about than just those things.  A teacher added that he sees student’s essays become less and less hopeful. One participant mentioned, ‘sometimes it feels like students are just thrown out into the world without having the necessary baggage to find their way in it.’ One study advisor mentioned that students often are not aware of their own motivation to study a certain subject, while it can be very empowering for students to know why they do certain things.

This remark moved the conversation in a new direction: if you do manage to get students to a different context, to learn in a different way, how do you then sensitively go about that? Student boundaries vary a lot. How can one make sure that everyone is challenged without pushing them too much and others too little? And how does one care for students with different needs in this context?
Lian explained that there are, generally speaking, four possible responses to bad world news. The first response is denial, where one does not even let the information enter. The second possible response is burn-out, which can arise after fighting fiercely for a better world and not seeing enough results. The third response is feeling depressed, which happens when one views the things as hopeless. One feels paralyzed. The fourth response is acceptance, which is where one can be emotional about news, without letting it overtake them. However, it is normal for everyone to shift between these responses. The skill might be in being able to accept difficult news without giving up or overdoing it.

To process this bit of theory, we walked in pairs and discussed our own personal responses to world news and how we let it effect our daily lives. We ended our session by making a small artwork of little natural things we picked up from our environment. Some sticks, flowers, pieces of moss, brown leaves and other things made a small reminder for our first session.

Second day – Growing season

The group gathered at the Clock building for a full day off-campus. The group was asked to let their analytical minds rest for the day and just experience what would become alive in them during the day.

To settle everyone in this new context and to help the participants to let go of their work-environment, the day started with some lighthearted games. The group was divided in pairs, one person was blindfolded. Like this, the participants were asked to explore their surroundings by showing their blindfolded partner around and find interesting smells, textures and plants. Afterwards, we played a game of squirrel-competition, which involved blindly throwing socks around at other participants. This made for hilarious moments and it built some connection in the group.
The core of this day was an exercise called the ‘Truth Mandala,’ in which participants were invited to share feelings of desparation, anger, sadness and fear. To give the participant some support, there were objects in the middle that reflected these feelings. The participants were invited one-by-one to hold one of the objects and share what was on their mind. Because of the deeply emotional nature of this exercise, the whole day circled around this exercise. Before the Truth Mandala were exercises of play, embodiment and connectedness. After the Truth Mandala were exercises with a focus on seeing things from a new perspective and exercises with regard to the future.

The last exercise specifically focused on going forth. In this, participants were divided into two groups. One group stays in the present, the other imagines to be seven generations ahead, so they live in the future. These future humans ask compassionate questions to the present-day humans. The future humans posed questions like, ‘how do you keep going while there is so much injustice in the world at your time?’ The result was a loving but difficult conversation that asked for personal reflection from the present-day humans.

Day three – Time to harvest

The focus on this day was on harvesting ideas and practices that the participants could use with their students. Many creative ideas came up, and the discussions enriched this day further. Following are some practices that we discussed.
First of all, we discussed how one’s own attitude can be important; how one could show up as a human for their students. Quickly, a students remarks that it’s always very disarming to see their teacher struggle to get a powerpoint going. Little things like this help students to relate. In a more serious setting, seeing their teacher passionate about a subject can inspire them. The discussion emerged how to balance your own emotional responses when you are discussing a sensitive topic. Of course it is okay for students to see their teacher passionate about a subject, but at the same time it is important that the teacher’s emotions around a subject don’t become the centre. A participant adds that the amount of emotion a teacher can show about their subject is heavily influenced by cultural backgrounds. Another participant adds that it’s important to be okay with sadness in students as a teacher, since this is a feeling we all can have sometimes. Similarly, silliness and playfulness can be relatable and even contagious.

Another small step that teachers can take is to create a little moment after or before discussing a sensitive topic. The teachers quickly brought up that many of them already did this. Some examples of short phrases that teachers use to support the students were given, such as ‘the subject of today may make you feel sad’ or ‘this is a heavy topic’. We also discussed the possibility for students to take a little moment to discuss among themselves what they feel around this topic. A participant adds that the little conversations between students is also possible in neutral or less-emotional courses. One can ask students after their motivations. Why do they find this subject important? Why does injustice matter to them?

Some other big and small exercises that came up that can’t be missed in this report are the following: to ask students after their favourite weather to allow for an easy bridge into conversations around climate issues. Or to let students write a few haiku’s about a relevant subject to your course that they feel passionate about. To add some optimism one can let students research some strengthening cases and share these among themselves. One teacher shared their experience in organizing a book club for students to discuss among themselves in an informal setting what happens to them when learning about sensitive topics. These are just a few of the exercises that our creative participants shared.

We are very grateful for all our participants and hope that the course has brought some aid in dealing with emotions around sensitive subjects in the classroom. The course was really well received and we will be hosting this teacher training again in November 2026!