1st Edition
Emotional Value in the Composition Classroom Self, Agency, and Neuroplasticity
Part 1: Plasticity as a Materialist Account of Becoming
1. Modern Neuroscience and Composition Studies
2. Engaging Student Self before Unraveling Identity
3. Emotion, Motivation, and Meaning: Decision-Making and Creative Risk
Part 2: The Biological Emergence of Self through Emotional Value
4. Self as Metaphor and Neurobiological Emergence
5. Brain as Apparatus and Sensational Ontology
6. Diffraction of Neuroscience, Agential Realism, and Composition
7. Situated Cognition and Growth Mindset: The Insular Cortex and EBO
Part 3: The Sedimented History of Emerging Selves: Molecular Structures of Learning and Memory
8. Memory as Emotional Encoding
9. Microfeatures, Automaticity, and Procedural Memory: Building Creative Power
10. Memory, Learning, and Transfer in Composition
11. Utilizing Plasticity to Modify Affect in Memory
Part 4: Wanting, Liking, and Meaning: Intrinsic Motivation and Eudaemonic Reward
12. Eudaemonic Meaning: How Motivation Impacts Experience
13. Motivating Instructors: Finding Value through Student-Centered Emergence
14. Diffractive Motivation and Increase of Transfer
15. Discovery Learning: Expansion of Self through Environment
Conclusion: Pedagogical Recommendations
Appendix A. Operational Definitions
Part 2. Common Self Components in Composition Scholarship
Part 3. Learning and Memory Terminology
Appendix B. Neurobiological Correlates of Concepts
Part 2. Neurobiological Correlates of Self
Part 3. Neurobiological Correlates of Learning, Memory, and Creativity
Part 4: Neurobiological Correlates of Motivation
Biography
Ryan Crawford is a lecturer in the English Department and Director of First-Year Writing at the University of New Haven, USA.
"Written by an emerging scholar in Writing Studies and neuroscience, Ryan Crawford’s book uses the concept of the ‘emergent self’ or the ‘self as becoming’ to provide insight into what happens in the brain during the experience of different types of motivation. The book utilizes an intriguing and unique approach to pedagogy, problematizing and expanding what is meant by a student-centered class. It is likely to have a groundbreaking impact on how we understand teaching, learning, and student agency."
Irene Clark, California State University, Northridge, USA.
"An innovative take on applying the principles of brain science to writing composition. Dr. Crawford provides the reader with an insight into how neuroscience research can have practical applications in the classroom setting."
Michael Hylin, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, USA.
“This is a transformative book. Crawford's thoughtful explication of how neuroscience informs first-year composition pedagogy is thorough and convincing. […] The book is meticulously researched and at times complex. […] With a strong emphasis on how students develop and maintain their senses of self, the author provides a thoughtful first-year writing curriculum that is both hopeful and grounded in the latest composition/rhetorical research. This book will be useful for graduate students and professors who want to learn more about how the brain learns to write at the neurobiological level.”
M. Mutschelknaus, Rochester Community and Technical College, USA.
