The significance of joy in the learning process.

摘要

This dissertation seeks to investigate the term joyful learning as it applies to the learning process. Using methods of narrative inquiry, the collected stories of students serve as the nucleus around which the understanding of joyful learning is built. This inquiry is grounded in the literature of joy in the learning process, whole child learning theory, deep learning, agency in learning, and educational wounds. In this narrative inquiry, 15 students ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade were asked to tell the story of their experience with learning. A domain analysis was completed on the stories of wounds and celebrations in the interviewees' varied learning experiences and the identification of commonalities served as a catalyst for an enhancement of education theory and laid the foundation for future research on the importance of joy in the learning process of human beings. The themes emerging in this narrative inquiry were joy, engagement and disengagement in learning, connected learning, motivators and de-motivators, peer influence, positioning, relationship between the student and the teacher, agency, forced learning, standardized assessment and meaningful assessment, educational wounds, and the significance of education. Evidence of educational wounding surfaced in all 15 stories, illuminating a connection between the wounding and the replacement of student-centered learning practices with compulsory, standardized reforms.