Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (sometimes known as emotional literacy) is a relatively new concept in the education world. By helping children to deal with their emotions and to become better listeners, it can assist teachers in the classroom and raise standards.

‘Connecting to our feelings is neither a soft, nor an easy option. Disconnecting from our feelings is not clever.’ The Antidote Manifesto, 2001.

There is no doubt that children’s emotions have a huge impact on school life. Anger affects the atmosphere in a classroom like nothing else. Similarly, in lessons where significant progress has been made, it is likely that more positive emotions were present in both teacher and pupils.

Emotions impact productivity, relationships, creativity and achievements. Philosophers such as David Hume and Adam Smith believed them to be vital to social and individual existence. More recent thinkers have examined the premise further. In Emotion: The science of sentiment, Dylan Evans writes that ‘Intelligent action results from a harmonious blend of emotion and reason’. He adds, ‘Knowing when to follow our feelings and when to ignore them is a valuable talent that some have called “emotional intelligence”.’     

Defining the concept

The Southampton Emotional Literacy Interest Group (SELIG) defines emotional literacy as: ‘The ability to recognise, understand, handle and appropriately express emotions’. According to SELIG, such an important skill should not be marginalized or contained in one small dimension of the curriculum. Emotional literacy can be used to encompass:

• Learning and achievement
• Social and health education
• Spiritual, moral and cultural development
• Equal opportunities
• Citizenship
• Behaviour and discipline
• Social inclusion
• Crime and disorder
• Music, art, dance and drama

Getting emotional

Schools that seek specifically to promote emotional literacy amongst pupils have provided evidence that it helps to raise achievement. Teachers will often use certain approaches. For example, they might adopt key emotions such as anger and happiness or fear and excitement each half term. This encourages awareness of the impact that emotions can have on our lives. Children can be asked to think about contrasting emotions: when they might experience them and how they might express them differently. Fiction, themed displays or music and colour imagery can all help children of any age feel more connected to their emotions.

What you can do

As a new teacher in a school your role can be central. The impact of both your own, and your pupils’, emotions might play a strong role in the development of your personal teaching style. The following methods will begin developing emotional intelligence in your pupils:

• Offer pupils a part of each lesson to explain what they have learned or researched to others in their group.
• Let personal reflection play a strong role in your lessons. Encourage pupils to think about what they are achieving and how they are making progress. They might consider how they are helping or hindering themselves and how they might do things differently.
• Develop tasks and activities that nurture listening skills.
• Offer pupils choices within your lessons, as far as is practical. This helps them to develop a sense of responsibility for, and commitment to, their actions.
• Give praise and positive encouragement as frequently as possible and encourage pupils to do this for themselves and for each other.

Why does emotional literacy matter?

In Nurturing Emotional Literacy, educational psychologist Peter Sharp explains what we can expect to see if schools are successful at nurturing emotional literacy:

• Children who recognise and understand their feelings and so become more adept at handling and expressing them appropriately
• Children and teachers who are less unduly stressed, and are able to manage competing demands more effectively
• Children who have become better listeners, and who are more likely to see the other person’s point of view
• Children with an increased attention span
• Children who have greater prowess at forming and maintaining relationships
• Children will have learned problem-solving methods that lead to enhanced interpersonal skills as adults
• Children who have learned to manage conflicts and are therefore less likely to be involved in crime, particularly those crimes involving violence
• Children who have learned skills that enhance their future parenting skills

Achieving even half of these results will have made focussing on emotional intelligence well worth the effort for both teachers and their pupils.

For more information visit www.antidote.org.uk: the home of the Campaign for Emotional Literacy. Alternatively, www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk is an independent charity seeking to stimulate an appetite for learning in every individual. The home of the National Emotional Literacy Interest Group is www.nelig.com.

Formal training in emotional intelligence is also available. One option is an Internet course, such as those provided by Fieldwork online training. Fieldwork offers a free trial enabling schools to judge whether or not the material offered suits their needs. See www.fieldworkonlinetraining.com.  

Originally published on Teachernet