Online Courses for Teachers

The Importance of Joy in the Classroom

Teaching can be challenging, even grueling at times, but it also brings us joy, or we wouldn’t be teachers. In fact, many teachers who choose to leave the profession have come to the realization that the joy of teaching is gone. It is so important to create joy in the classroom for students throughout the day. When joy is abundant at school, school feels fun and safe. It creates community and love, and it encourages students to take ownership over their learning and be excited to come to school.

Although it can feel counterintuitive in times of high stakes testing and increased rigor, bringing joy into the classroom is absolutely essential if you want to cultivate a love of learning in students. Yet somehow, as an educational system, we have moved away from adding joy to the curriculum. This is precisely why our course Social, Emotional, and Physical Wellness for Students and Teachers is so needed. This course incorporates strategies on how to add more joy to your school community and the benefits of doing so, for teachers and students alike.

Academic Benefits of Joy

Many of us have been raised to think that joy and fun are superfluous, something that we can do when all the other chores and obligations are complete. However, taking time for rest and joy have real academic and wellness benefits and should not be left until everything else is complete. This applies to both staff and students. Creating time and space for joy and relaxation are incredibly important to our well-being and mental health. Joyful activities can decrease stress, as well as anxiety and depression. Joy can help cultivate community by building positive relationships between adults and students.

Joy doesn’t just help mental health though; it also can play an important role in developing academic skills that students need to be successful. Joy helps students foster their love of learning. It encourages curiosity and an open mind. It also helps students access grit, perseverance, and empathy. All these skills are essential for creating a healthy life and succeeding in the workplace and in the classroom.

Take a look at several distinct ways bringing joy into the classroom can benefit students.

1. Joy Develops Curiosity

One important quality of learning is curiosity. Curiosity is our natural inclination to wonder about the world around us. Curiosity is the foundation of learning and inquiry, and it is an important skill for students to cultivate. However, many students tend to lose their sense of curiosity as they get older and progress through school. Oftentimes, when high school students are asked what they’re interested in, the answer is, “Nothing.” Somehow along the way, school stopped being a place of joy and learning, and students’ curiosity became diminished. To engage students in school, it is essential to reignite their natural curiosity.

Incorporating students’ interests is one instructional strategy that sparks joy and brings curiosity back into the classroom. Students often complain that school has nothing to do with the real world and their personal interests. This is an opportunity to prove them wrong by incorporating more of their natural interests into the curriculum.

Another strategy for creating joy and curiosity in the classroom is to create opportunities for questions. From an early age, children are curious about the world in which they live, and this curiosity often manifests itself in countless, non-stop questions. However, somewhere along their educational journeys, students can lose this spark, opting instead to conform to the cues and norms established at school. As they get older, when a teacher asks for questions at the end of direct instruction, often the only sound he/she hears is crickets. Unfortunately, what gets lost in the process is the wonderful sense of wonder and with it, the desire or motivation to pursue new learning deeply, thoroughly, and thoughtfully. Being curious about the curriculum helps stimulate learning and memory, improve engagement, and add joy to the lesson.

2. Joy Encourages Risk Taking

Creating a joyful environment at school allows for healthy risk taking. Taking risks and trying new things is an essential part of growing up. However, if students are anxious, depressed, and lacking positive relationships at school, they are going to be less likely to take risks and put themselves out there. Many students would rather leave a question blank than take a risk and get it wrong. Opting out is less emotionally risky than making a mistake, especially in front of one’s peers. Fostering joy in the classroom alleviates anxiety, creates positive relationships, and allows for a safe space for taking risks. If students feel comfortable and happy in school, they are more likely to be able to put themselves out there and try new things, even if that means they might make a mistake. This is the essence of grit: being able to make mistakes, persevere, and grow from them.

3. Joy Develops Grit

Another overlooked benefit of adding joy to your classroom is developing grit in students. Grit is the ability to maintain passion, motivation, and effort even through difficult tasks. Grit has been a buzzword in education in recent years and refers to the idea of being able to push through a difficult task so that you can persevere. Grit is extremely important to student success. In fact, some studies have shown that grit and perseverance, not IQ, are an important predictor of academic success for students (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005).

4. Joy Encourages Empathy and Compassion

Joyful activities help students access their empathy and compassion. When our cups are full and we are living fully satisfied lives, we are better able to absorb the stress of others and access our compassion and empathy. If our own lives are filled with chaos or anxiety, it’s a lot harder to access the emotional well that we need to support others. Bringing joy into the classroom helps fill students’ cups. It makes them happier, alleviates stress, and helps cultivate positive adult relationships. This allows students to be more relaxed and thus better able to access their empathy and compassion, both for themselves and for others. When we can access these feelings, facing challenges and setbacks becomes easier and grit increases. If we have compassion for ourselves, we are better able to avoid shame when making mistakes. This, in turn, allows us to push through the challenge and grow, instead of shrinking and giving up.

Although it may be difficult in the current educational climate of high stakes testing and assessments to find the time to incorporate joy into your classroom, the benefits are well worth it. Students who experience joy at school grow both personally and academically and develop lifelong skills such as grit, risk-taking, and empathy and compassion.

Are you curious? Want to take a deep dive on this topic?

To learn more about bringing joy into your classroom, visit the Professional Development Institute (PDI) website or our Social, Emotional, and Physical Wellness for Students and Teachers course.

For over 27 years, PDI has provided high-quality and affordable online professional development courses to K-12 teachers worldwide. Our online courses are designed to offer practical strategies that can be implemented in classrooms immediately. All our courses are instructor-led and conducted entirely online. Graduate-level university credit for every PDI online course for teachers is available through the University of California San Diego Division of Extended Studies. PDI offers an extensive catalog of online courses that cover the most critical topics in today's classrooms.

Categories: Social, Emotional, and Physical Wellness for Students and Teachers

References:

Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). “Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents.” In Psychological Science, 16(12), pp. 939–944.

EuroSchool, & EuroSchool. (2023, September 8). How to develop grit in Students – 10 tips. EuroSchool. https://www.euroschoolindia.com/blogs/how-to-develop-grit-in-students/