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Teach With A Instead of E
If I do something and I feel good, I do more of it … Law of Affect
—Thorndike, 1903
When Edward Lee Thorndike stumbled upon the first law of learning in 1903—the Law of Affect—the world of schools and teaching was changed forever. This Law of Affect, simply stated, looked like this: “If I do something and it feels good, I’ll do more of it; if I do something, and it feels bad, I’ll do less of it.” It described a bond between actions and feelings. The greater the “satisfaction” or “discomfort,” the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond. The focus for this first law was on the word Affect, deliberately spelled with A. The actions described produced feelings—satisfactory feelings or discomforting feelings—which ...
