Social and emotional conditions significantly influence how students engage with learning. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, or shame can block cognitive processing, while positive emotions like safety, belonging, and confidence foster attention, motivation, and memory retention. This holds true not only in schools, but also in workplaces, communities, and lifelong learning. Learning, in any context, is deeply embedded in emotional and social experiences. A student who feels excluded or unsafe will not fully engage, regardless of the quality of instruction. Thus, understanding and addressing the emotional climate of learning environments is crucial for meaningful education.

Dorothy Espelage has contributed vital research in the area of bullying in schools, using educational psychology to explore how peer victimization affects students’ social-emotional development and academic outcomes. In one of her studies, she found that bullying is not just a disciplinary issue but a predictor of academic disengagement, anxiety, and school avoidance. The evidence suggests that students who experience or witness bullying often suffer from long-term cognitive and emotional impacts that impede their capacity to learn.

For example, in middle school settings, Espelage’s research identified that a lack of teacher intervention in bullying situations correlates strongly with students’ decreased sense of safety and belonging, which in turn affects their classroom participation and academic motivation. From a psychological perspective, this aligns with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: if students do not feel secure socially and emotionally, they cannot self-actualize as learners.

The key concept here is the interdependence between emotional safety and cognitive performance. The evidence supports that when schools implement socio-emotional learning (SEL) programs, including conflict resolution, empathy training, and community-building practices, bullying decreases and academic performance improves.

In interpreting this evidence, we must consider both contextual variables (like school climate and peer norms) and individual factors (like self-regulation and resilience). These concepts remind us that addressing learning issues must go beyond curriculum and reach into the emotional and relational structures of students’ environments.