Emotional intelligence in schools

The Emotional Intelligence concept has become known around the world as an essential component in corporate leadership. Daniel Goleman, a pioneer in research in this area, developed tools and techniques to help deepen leadership skills and make professionals more effective.

Some American primary schools have created a methodology based on the development of children’s social and emotional skills. A large number of researchers say that emotional intelligence is fundamental to school success and children’s social life. Children with little emotional ability struggle to make friends, lack attention in the classroom, and have feelings of frustration, shyness, and insecurity. Students with good emotional skills are able to control impulses, know that you can’t always get what you want immediately, are able to generate ideas and put them into practice, able to understand other people’s feelings and deal with ups and downs of life naturally.

Schools where children are happy and motivated often treat emotional intelligence as a priority. As well as the academic side, this methodology aspires for a culture that promotes positive thinking, uses positive affirmations, and makes children self-sufficient in managing their feelings. Its main objective is to provide children with simple techniques that become positive habits to increase their well-being and consequently help to make them successful and happier adults.

Characteristics of a positive learning environment

Security — an environment free from fear and psychological or emotional pressure. Free from threats, punishment, intimidation, humiliation, or embarrassment.

Respect — students and teachers respect each other’s feelings, needs, beliefs, values ​​and individuality.

Personalized support — students are treated individually. Your needs, talents, potentials, and interests are supported.

Stimulus — the material and the environment stimulate the student’s natural learning curiosity.

Flexibility — changes are often made easily for adaptation.

A positive mental attitude is one of the main helpers for success. Negative thoughts affect children’s feelings, and as a result, can make them sad, low self-esteem, or even depressed. During tests or other challenging situations, children are more likely to succeed if there has previously been careful preparation and positive stimulation. Encouraging a positive attitude and language will help your child to the best of his ability. A great way to promote this attitude is through the use of positive affirmations.

This is one of the secrets of successful people. For example, if a child is shy, you can ask him to write on a piece of paper: “Today I am confident and I will speak to people easily”. The daily repetition with conviction and belief of a statement like this will benefit the child to develop a more positive outlook on life. It is advisable to have the support of the parents or guardians of the child at home so that there is a reinforcement of the technique. Healthy self-esteem is usually linked with good emotional skills. Children with good emotional skills are more likely to have a positive self-image: feeling happy, confident, and safe; chat and make friends easily; being able to ask for help without fear and fear.

Encourage attitude — “I can. I can.”

Believing that things are difficult or impossible weakens children’s motivation. Virtually all children, at some point in their life, think, “I won’t be able to do that.” or “This is very difficult for me.” Such beliefs are harmful, students may not realize their potential and end up not trying ways that could help in their improvement. Stages like “I’m learning” or “I’m improving” are simple behavioral changes and have been shown to be very effective in strengthening confidence and self-esteem.

Our emotions evolved as a survival tool. When we are upset the emotional centers “hijack’ ’our thoughts, making us unable to think clearly, to focus on tasks and even make them more difficult. In this case, both in the workplace and in the classroom, it is extremely important to know how to manage our emotions for good learning, focus, and concentration.