Pedagogic Affect/Effect: Embodying a Desire to Learn

How effective are different pedagogic practices? What is the role of affect in learning to write? Affective education is a growing field of inquiry. Within education, however, affect is generally used as a synonym for emotion or feeling. Though giving consideration to these understandings, this article takes a different perspective and explores affect from a Deleuzian/Spinozistic perspective as force and capacity. The conception of pedagogic affect discussed here mobilises the insights of Spinoza's (1677/1994) psychophysical parallelism and Vygotsky's notion of a "zone of proximal development." In so doing, the article explores how pedagogy needs to foreground the role of teachers in classrooms and their impact on not only the cognitive dimensions of learning but also the corporeal. Although emphasis is placed on expounding this theory, the article also draws on a case study of the teaching of writing in a primary/elementary school in Sydney, Australia. It highlights the particular practices a teacher uses that appear to generate affects that promote both a desire to write in her students and the skills required to do so.