Effective Teaching Is...Affective Teaching

In 1994, English professor Jeffrey Berman published Diaries to an English Professor, a study of fifteen years' worth of the ungraded, introspective journals his students had kept in his literature courses at the University at Albany. Buried in that book is a line that has inspired this post: effective teaching is... affective teaching.

It's a small play on words with a large claim. Berman wasn't arguing that content doesn't matter, or that rigor is optional. He was arguing something more specific: that the intellectual transformation we want for our students – the kind that actually sticks – depends on an emotional and relational foundation first.

They Don't Want Easy

There is a persistent, tired narrative in modern education: Kids “these days” just want things easy. We hear that today’s students – navigating a complex, post-pandemic learning landscape, to be sure – want a transactional path to success: a system where compliance, high (perhaps performative) effort, and checking off boxes guarantee an easy A without any real academic friction – or growth.