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THE STUDY OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE WITHIN THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR.

BY TUNDE ADELEYE

Abstract

The study of Emotional Intelligence has gained prominence over the years, more so, as it centres on a person's cognitive ability to perceive, understand and manage emotion. It is also a set of skills, when used effectively, to regulate emotion in self and in others. This paper sets out clearly to focus on the study of emotion within the educational sector. This is a relatively new concept in the educational establishment, although not remotely distant to the study of why some pupils with emotional problems behave the way they do. The emotional Intelligence framework developed by two researchers will be used as a focal point to examine the four major areas associated with emotion. Secondly, this paper will argue extensively that most teachers are not attuned to the problems associated with the Emotional Intelligence of students and how to manage them appropriately.

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Finally, and of crucial importance, this paper will attempt to find out if there is a validity to the concept of Emotional Intelligence and how this can be incorporated into the National curriculum.

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Introduction

The study of Emotional Intelligence is far too important to dwarf into insignificance. In our everyday life, our emotions shape our thoughts, feelings and to a considerable degree, it will almost certainly demonstrate how we manage them. In the contemporary world we live in today, it becomes quite clear that societal problems that afflict one person or one family can affect them for many generations to come. These problems stem from addiction, anger, depression, abandonment, abuse, neglect, rejection, etc.

Undoubtedly, everyone needs love, fulfilment and acceptance in their lives. Not surprisingly, it is their inability to recognise and manage their emotions and that of others that has continued to be the focus of empirical study over the years.

Quite a number of definitions on Emotional Intelligence have been proffered by several psychologists and academicians. They all offer a succinct definition about Emotional Intelligence, and all are agreed at least in principle, that it refers to out innate ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and to reason and problem solve on the basis of them.

Perhaps a more detailed definition was the one given by Josh Freedman, an educator, who said "Emotional Intelligence is the inner capacities that let us create optimal relationships with ourselves and others. The skills include using thoughts, feelings, and actions to build self knowledge, self management and self direction"

During the course of teaching at William Edwards school, one of the major problems I have observed is the unruly and sometimes aggressive behaviour of some students, especially towards teachers. Quite rightly, I found this form of behaviour very hard to accept due to the fact that I come from an ethnic background where is it considered objectionable to disrespect elders.

Having taking a cursory look at the behavioural problems of some students, it is plausible to argue that these problems can only emanate from three main areas, notably; the home, societal influence and the mental state of an individual. In the same breadth, it will be incorrect to assume that all students who have behavioural problems have the same emotional and psychological needs.

Admittedly, like any adult, children have needs which sometimes are not satisfied. Depending on the nature of the need not met, which could either be phyisical, mental or emotional abuse, the effect of this can be rather traumatic for any child. Eventually they become frustrated and these can be acted out in various ways and typically seen as "misbehaviour".

One obvious form of "misbehaviour" often exhibited by some children has been correctly dignosed as Attention Deficit Disorder. Undeniably, students with ADD are prone to have bouts of inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. It is also a known fact that students with ADD tend to learn best when teachers are able to understand and identify their special needs. Once this has been established, teachers can then structure their educational programmes to meet these needs.

The importance of emotions

Understanding the complexity of emotions is a difficult task as it varies from one individual to another. Yet it has to be borne in mind that what constitutes and inevitably leads to various emotions remains a critical component of emotional intelligence.

For instance, when a student's behaviour is called into question, the emotional state of the student may lead to resentment. If not diffused properly, resentment may lead to anger and when this continues or intensifies, may subsequently lead to rage. It is therefore imperative to have the skills to discern how emotions combine and change in the course of dealing with other people.

To a larger extent, all humans possess the basic emotional needs which perhaps is the potential source of uniting all members of the human species. These needs can be expressed in a multitude of ways ranging from respect, acceptance and love. Although it has to be stressed that one person may need more love, whislt others may crave for more freedom and independence. However, unbriddled freedom or too much indulgence on food, may have a long term adverse effect on a person which, ultimately may lead to other problems, psychological, emotional or physical.

What makes emotional intelligence difficult for many teachers to embrace is the salient aspect of trying to understand and manage the emotional problems of many students. To compound this even further, teachers too have their own emotions that in most cases is not in sync with that of the students.

In a concerted effort to use their own skills and self- knowledge to identify the emotional state of certain students, the conclusive truth is that teachers have not been trained to offer counselling to some students. Rather than go down this route, such students have been unfairly labelled and misunderstood.

The perennial question now is; should teachers be allowed to assume sole or part responsibility of managing the emotional problems of students? Or should this activity still remain that of the parents and counselling experts? The answer is far fetched, but certainly not an improbable one that will defeat a collective sense of reasoning.

Arguably, it is usually children in dysfunctional families whose emotional needs are not met. As is often the case, they may witness scenes of constant parental conflict, fighting, alcoholism, physical, mental and sexual abuse and neglect. During these formative years of their young lives, they are subjected to a myriad of negative emotional feelings which painfully leads to depression, loneliness and hopelessness.

Following on from this, when some of these psychologically abused children with bottled up emotional problems are faced with confrontation or control by teachers or their peers, the only way out for them is to release their anger and bitterness in an aggressive manner. This is however not advancing the notion that every aggressive student has an emotional problem that can be traced back to the family.

Using the four branch model of Emotional Intelligence of Mayer and Salovey (17), it is worthwhile discussing the elements of each branch and use it as a construct to understand the underpinning reasons each one.

Four branch model of Emotional Intelligence

·Perception appraisal and expression of emotion

·Emotional facilitation of thinking

·Understanding and analysing eemotions; employing emotional knowldege

·Reflective regulation of emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth

Perception appraisal and expression of emotion

This is the ability to identify emotion in one's physical states, feelinigs, and thoughts. It is also the ability to identify emotions in other people through language, sound, appearance and behaviour. Clearly, there is a distinction between the two. The former is dealing with the emotive feeling of self, whilst the latter is about the emotive feelings of others.

This contruct is extremenly important for teachers to be able to recognise and integrate their own emotional feeling with that of others, i.e colleagues and students. For example, our emotions help us to communicate with others. Similarly, our facial expressions can convey a wide range of emotions.

A likely scenario could be, if a student looks sad or hurt in the classroom, are they signalling to teachers that they need help? If this were to be the case, are teachers effective at identifying the signs and showing empathy by listening to and reassuring the student that they important and cared about? This will depend on the perceptive ability of the teacher to first identify the emotion of the student and to express their own emotion in a positive manner.

Emotional facilitation of thinking

Most of the time, our ability to think proactively enables us to use our feelings constructively to make better decisions. This is true because our emotions serve as an invaluable source of information.

Although sometimes, when a person's emotional connections are severed from the brain, he or she will be deprived of the ability to make simple decisions. The reason why this remains a perturbing issue is because such person will not be in a vantage position to know how he or she will feel about the choices the make. Nevertheless, the ability to let one's feelings guide them to what is important to think about can not be discounted.

Understanding and analysing emotions; employing emotional knowldege

This is the ability to understand the meanings of emotions and how they change. Equally important is the ability to interpret the meanings that emotions convey regarding relationships, such as that sadness often accompanies a loss.

In addition, this construct also gives us the ability to understand complex feelings; simultaneous feelings of love and hate or blends such as awe as a combination of fear and surprise.

For instance, a student who has just experienced the sad feeling of losing a loved one, he or she is likely to go through a mixed feeling of craving love from others, and at the same time, expressing a feeling of hate and anger as a result of their loss. In this kind of scenario, a teacher has to be able to recognise likely transitions among emotions, such as the transition from needing love to extreme anger and hate.

Reflective regulation of emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth

This is the ability to take responsibility for ones's own feelings and happiness. It is also the time to reflectively monitor emotions in relation to oneself and others, such as recognising how clear or rational their actions are. Further to this, it is the ability to manage emotion in oneself and others by moderating negative emotions and enhancing pleasant ones; without repressing or exaggerating information they may convey.

It is especially with this contruct that I strongly feel that teachers have not received any training in a bid to manage the emotional problems of students. Rather than manage the emotional problems of students, what seems to be unmistakably true is the fact that they are good at recognising the problems than resolving them in the long term.

The validity of Emotional Intelligence

The concept attached to Emotional Intelligence can be used interchangeably with Intelligence Quotient. However, there is a sharp distinction between the two. Where IQ is a fixed capacity for processing cognitive information, EI is a set of learnable skills for making decisions, living in integrity, and connecting with others.

According to Mayer, he posited that each baby is born with a certain potential for emotional sensitivity, emotional memory, emotional processing and emotional learning ability. Based on the premise of these four inborn components, he further remarked that they formed the core of one's emotional intelligence. On the strength of this, the innate intelligence can either be developed or damaged with life's experiences, particularly by the emotional lessons taught by the parents, teachers and family during childhood and adolescence.

The validity of EI can be extended to mean it is quite possible for a person to start out with high EI, but then be emotionallly damaged in early childhood, resulting in a low EI later on in life. In contrast, it is also possible for a child to have a relatively low EI, but ultimately receive healthy emotional nurturing and love.

Can Emotional Intelligence be inconrporated into the National curriculum?

In the past when innovative changes were introduced by the Governemnt into education, they have either met with stiff resistance from parents or from the teachers. The problems of implementing such changes were probably seen as impractical and

one not likely to promote the mental development of the students.

Giving this view, the argument that the standard of discipline has fallen since corporal punishment was outlawed, can be ignored. Today, teachers spend so much time trying to control students in the classroom that there is little or not time left for teaching. The matter becomes increasingly worse taking into account that teachers can not expel a child from school, since such a student be become a liability to society.

A feasible and pragmatic system being practiced by William Edwards School is to place students who have emotional problems on Anger Management sessions. It does prove the point that EI is teachable given the necessary resources and the skills of the counsellor. However, an extention of this point is that teachers should be trained on how to integrate the learning process with Emotional Intelligence if EI is critical, then must be teachable.

As it were, many teachers at William Edwards School are ill-equipped to get to know a student at the level of identifying his or her unique emotional needs. They are also ill-equipped to meet those needs. As I argued earlier, this is partly due to the lack of training and partly due to the lack of priority by the educational system itself.

Further still, it has to be recognised that teachers themselves are so preocupied with their own emotional needs that it is seemingly impossible for them to acquiant themselves with the emotional needs of their students. Even when the teachers are aware of the emotional needs of each student, the school is not designed to support teacher in helping the student in this area.

Conclusion

This paper has discussed the concept of Emotional Intelligence in the educational sector and its validity. It has also given a comprehensive analysis of the four branches of EI giving examples in the process. In particular, it has highlighted the problems associated with the emotional problems of students and concluded that such problems were either as a result of parental neglect, abuse or loss.

In the main, such students with emotional problems act out their frustrations, anger and general behavioural problems in school, since students no longer have a respect for teachers and authority.

Lastly, this paper has argued that teachers are not properly trained to cope with the emotional demands and problems of all students. The problem of introducing emotional intelligence into the national curriculum was also commented upon. This may meet with resistance from teachers themselves as they be see the management of emotional problems of the students, the sole responsibility of their parents.

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