EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION THROUGH EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT
Abstract
Within the framework of emotional management, more and more teachings are being developed given the need to include adequate teaching of it from an early age, this leads us to a deep analysis of its processing and teaching techniques, as well as promoting its consequences of teaching it and the risks of not doing it. In such a way that we enter the context of the student to adapt in the most optimal way possible both to their emotional management and to the teaching of content.
INNOVACIÓN EDUCATIVA MEDIANTE LA GESTIÓN EMOCIONAL
Resumen
En el marco de la gestión emocional se van desarrollando cada vez más enseñanzas dada la necesidad que existe de abarcar desde edades tempranas una enseñanza adecuada de la misma, esto nos lleva a un análisis profundo de sus técnicas de procesamiento y enseñanza, así como promover sus consecuencias al enseñarlo y los riesgos que conlleva no hacerlo. De tal forma que nos adentremos en el contexto del alumno para adecuarnos de la manera más óptima posible tanto a su gestión emocional como a la enseñanza de contenidos.
Keywords
Context, Emotions, Innovation, Learning, Teaching
INTRODUCTION
Theoretical framework
At present, and despite the multiple benefits that its application and development entail, Emotional Intelligence still does not receive attention proportional to its importance (Solana & R, 2015). There is too high an ambiguity in the studies that have been carried out to determine the importance of Emotional Intelligence in the classroom, and these studies have a somewhat poor demand, they have not created precise conclusions. In recent years, the term emotional intelligence has become ‘fashionable’. If we take the text by Extremera and Fernández-Berrocal (2003) as an example, we see that the usefulness of Emotional Intelligence in the classroom is very high. These authors have deepened on the evaluation procedures of Emotional Intelligence in the educational framework. If we focus on the basic emotional skills and their process on the part of the subject, we can evaluate Emotional Intelligence from various aspects, such as seeing to what extent a subject is capable of recognizing their own emotions or how they perceive the emotions of others. Most of these evaluations have been carried out with the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). This test is based on four main factors:
Source: Self-made.
Following this same line of study, what generates the most interest in the psychological and pedagogical environment, regarding Emotional Intelligence, is its level of influence in the school environment in terms of its relationship with school failure or success. Jiménez MMorales, López-Zafra, and E (2009) state that some centers are carrying out emotional education programs seeing the relationship it has with academic performance, and in their studies, they have reflected a significant relationship between school success and failure with emotional management in the classroom, which evokes further studies that shed light on this issue.
A perfect base to take examples of studies and works on emotional intelligence and management and to know their impact in the classroom is the work of Ranea (2015), where several definitions of emotional education are compiled from historical authors, such as Darwin, William James, Cannon and Bard, Freud, or Lang. We start from the fact that there are two types of intelligence related to emotions, on the one hand, Interpersonal Intelligence, which is the one that develops by observing others, understanding them, and relating to them; and Intrapersonal Intelligence, which refers to the model that the subject creates of oneself and how it is used to interact appropriately.
For his part, Goleman (1996) gives emotional intelligence five directions:
Source: Taken from Goleman (1996)
These directions established by Goleman can be a basis for study and research in subjects, to determine the level of emotional intelligence from which one starts. On the other hand, Campillo Ranea also grants some very valid objectives that emotional education should pursue:
|
Acquire a better understanding of one´s own emotions. |
|
Identify emotions in others. |
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Develop control of emotions. |
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Prevent harmful effects of negative emotions. |
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Develop emotional competence. |
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Autonomously generate positive emotions. |
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Develop self-motivation and optimism. |
Figure 3.
Source: Taken from Campillo Ranea.
These objectives, once developed, favor social skills, decrease pessimism and stress, improve social behavior and self-esteem, and favor adaptation to the social and school environment, and, consequently, better academic performance.
Therefore, a conclusion linked to the aforementioned studies is that emotional education can serve both the teacher and the student. An emotionally competent teacher is more remembered by the students. A study by the United States Agency for Emotional Development has shown that students remember teachers who have qualities of a socio-emotional character, such as closeness, trust, credibility, motivational capacity, and respect. These aspects motivate the student to focus their attention on the knowledge that the teacher wants to convey. On the other hand, to favor an emotionally competent student, it is necessary to know the factors of their emotional life to see the asocial behaviors that can have an effect on the classroom and academic performance. Proper management, as we see in the article by Cerdá Suárez and M (2014), favors the development of skills in students, motivation, empathy, and intellectual flexibility are the most outstanding. The teaching leadership style favors students knowing more widely how emotional management works, although the advantages of teaching flexibility to achieve a positive approach with students as a teaching-learning strategy should not be overlooked.
Finally, we start from a study base to analyze project proposals carried out by different associations that promote and work with emotional intelligence and management. These studies demonstrate a totally clear relationship between the student's level of attention and their emotional state, as well as a remarkable influence on their level of motivation directly related to their emotional state at that moment. Other studies such as that of Stelzerm, et al, (2017) Emotional regulation and academic skills: relationship in children 9 to 11 years of age show that within the scope of work of emotional intelligence, there are self-motivation techniques that provide the student significant results in terms of learning level.
A class normally consists of 15-20 students. There is a tendency to think that these students learn at the same pace, in the same way, and that they have the same learning methodology, something that is totally wrong. A student with problems in the family context cannot learn with the same motivation or attention as a student with very few or no worries that occupy his thoughts.
Concerning these issues,Marina (2005) mentions that there is currently a growing interest in the teaching framework to know the level of impact of emotions in the field of learning, both at the teaching level, in how the emotions of the professor or teacher affect when having contact with students and transmitting their knowledge; and at the student level, in how their emotions can affect the level of attention, motivation, self-perception, or social skills. This author refers to the works of ancient philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, or Descartes, who related emotional management to ethics, but from neurology, with some studies, an attempt is being made to achieve a balance between feelings and ethics. Resulting in creating personal management of both factors.
We consider it interesting to refer to some facts presented by Ferres, Berrocal de Luna, and Jiménez Sánchez (2018), who conducted a study of 230 4th-grade primary school students, to demonstrate how the student's context, that is, place of housing, family climate, family structure, social origin, etc., influences their emotions, concluding that the place of residence is not so important, but their economic situation, school resources, or the number of books at home are important. Seeing the results and reading said article, it is considered that it is stuck in very superficial factors, without taking into account how it can affect the relationship with parents, social skills in the school environment, relationship with friends, or the concerns caused by various factors.
The omission of this interest in emotional factors in students and teachers leads to cases of stress or frustration, which can lead to Burnout syndrome. Pablo Torres and John Cobo (2018) have carried out a significant study on its prevention in teachers based on emotional management. This syndrome is caused by oppressive stress that creates negative consequences on self-esteem, leading to a lack of interest in the tasks to be performed and loss of a sense of responsibility. In this study, we work on how to avoid it through emotional intelligence and management. This article only speaks in the capacity of teachers, but it should not be overlooked that the symptoms and factors that cause it can occur in students and that the avoidance technique is fully transferable to students.
Therefore, with these objectives, we seek to work and research the level of the positive influence that emotional management has in terms of what the level of learning, self-esteem, motivation, refers since it is an area that has been worked superficially, and which is currently in a positive boom from which it is convenient to draw conclusions for an improvement of teaching-learning strategies in current models.
The transmission of knowledge remains empty if it is not linked to a social-emotional education. Here, the importance of creating emotional education and management programs is denoted, given the results in the improvement of academic qualifications.
Research objectives:
• Demonstrate the level of influence of emotions on academic success or failure
• Analyze the state of the issue of emotional intelligence in primary education classrooms
• Promote the teaching of emotional self-management in the school environment.
• Characterize active emotional management projects in primary schools
Methodology:
Within all the research methodologies that were offered to carry out this work, we have used that of research and analysis of studies and cases, as well as a qualitative and deepening search among the different associations that share the movement of emotional intelligence.
The data collection has been carried out using this methodology because it was the most appropriate among those that were possible since it allowed us to know in depth the study base that we wanted to carry out with the articles of other authors, and once analyzed, we could focus on researching the work of associations and centers with real cases.
Studies by other researchers were found by conducting a thorough search both in libraries and on the internet with keywords such as 'emotional management', 'emotional intelligence', 'empathy', 'feelings', 'self-motivation', 'self-concept', 'motivation', 'mindfulness'.
For associations, on the other hand, an On-Line search was carried out with associations that met the previously established parameters, such as the one for work with an age range of 3 to 12 years, without fantasy methods or foolish promises, and, above all, with a prior contextualization of the subject to be studied.
Once the appropriate publications were obtained, they were read and summarized individually and thoroughly, and the main ideas were extracted, establishing a study and research base with a continuous line to these studies.
Emails were sent to some associations merely for research and information, requesting data on their projects and explanations of their work methodology. These emails were not answered, so the research was carried out autonomously.
Other options had to be ruled out, such as interviews, case studies, due to the location and time situation. The interviews that were attempted online were discarded because they did not get a response from the associations.
Research questions
What need is there to establish emotional management in the classroom?
What techniques are the most appropriate to work on emotional management in the school environment?
What impact do emotions have on the level of learning?
How does emotional management influence social skills in the school environment?
What impact does emotional intelligence have on school success or failure?
How could we establish emotional management in the current curriculum?
What projects are currently being carried out on emotional education in primary education classrooms? What are their results? Common features of these projects.
State of the issue
The purpose of emotional management in the school environment is to nurture the student with capacities that help them understand their emotions, as well as to know how to differentiate them and have control over them. Currently, the field of emotional management in the classroom is taking shape in recent research. In the last 10 years, looking at articles related to research in the field of emotional management and intelligence, we see that the oldest ones did not have a clear delimitation regarding the concept of 'Emotional Management', these studies continued to use obsolete definitions of the ancient philosophers, which could serve as a basis for a beginning of research but could not be the cornerstone on which to focus an entire study given their little research background and the poor information they contained.
Observing the most contemporary articles and studies, a more exact concept can be clarified, and we perceive how the authors, psychologists, and pedagogues are finding a common point in terms of their definition and formula of working with emotional intelligence and management concerning the school field.
Currently, emotional management has been given the importance it requires and deserves, studies are focused on providing accurate data, without ambiguity in their results. In current studies, we can take proven examples of how correct emotional management positively affects school success, and how poor emotional management influences academic failure.
Regarding the teacher, we currently have evidence through research of the level of attention that a teacher can create in students, this level of attention is created in 80% of the occasions by the social skills that the teacher demonstrates, such as Ibarrola says in his article (2003), such as empathy, closeness, or affection. These qualities help the student to feel more interested in what the teacher exposes, besides achieving an improvement in teaching-learning techniques. To achieve these skills, it is necessary to start with adequate emotional management. That is to say, emotional management is not only a matter of the student, it is not enough to simply create emotionally competent students, this process remains empty if it is not accompanied by adequate emotional management by the teacher, there must be cohesion within the classroom and create a positive learning climate.
DISCUSSION
How do emotions influence learning?
When carrying out a teaching-learning process, we usually do not take into account the contextual factors that may involve this process. Many factors intervene in the process and these factors are altered by many circumstances. Some of the most palpable factors are:
• Level of attention
• Methodology
• Understanding ability
• Previous knowledge
• Concentration
• Retention
• Analysis
• Expression
• Environmental factors
All these factors can be altered in one way or another depending on the contextual and emotional circumstances that each student has. For example, we have a case with two subjects, A and B. Subject A lives in a two-parent family nucleus, in a wealthy neighborhood of Granada, both parents are employed, do not have discussions in his presence, and living together at home is optimal. On the other hand, subject B lives in a problematic neighborhood in the North of Granada, he has heard in a discussion that his parents are going to divorce, and has not managed to socially integrate with the classroom due to his low self-esteem. Looking at these two cases, it is clear that subject B's level of attention will not be as high as that of subject A due to the concerns that occupy his mind at that moment. That's where emotional intelligence and management come in.
Emotions actively influence the capacity for retention, analysis, attention, and various factors related to learning, which translates into better or worse grades in direct proportion to our ability to manage emotions.
Why is emotional management necessary?
Once we have understood how the influence of emotions on learning works, the question arises as to whether emotional management is really necessary and why. The answer is overwhelming, emotional management must be a factor of analysis and learning by the educational community, focused on preparing students as emotionally competent subjects.
This need is fully justified, not just in a qualifying way as to what we can expect as academic performance. All the factors analyzed indeed have a direct influence on academic development, but we must not ignore the student´s personal development beyond the school one. Being an emotionally competent subject helps to develop social competencies, which also influence the school setting, but are equally necessary and important outside of it.
Therefore, the justifications of this research for the need for correct emotional development are based on the subject's social growth, self-perception, self-motivation, the capacity for empathy, optimism, the ability to work cooperatively, and autonomous and active personal development in an unfavorable school and social setting. Thus, providing a basis for personal growth to students so that we can research and deepen their educational needs and we can create subjects that apply these qualities when trying to nourish themselves with exposed knowledge and carry out a correct function within their role in the teaching-learning process.
Associations and center
Brief history and characteristics
The Alaiz Collective Association, with its physical headquarters in Navarra, has been working for more than fifty years in the field of social commitments. It is an independent, playful, non-profit association that gives different workshops and training courses focused on emotional management through factors such as self-motivation, self-esteem, social and gender equality, among others.
The training is carried out by professionals with training in gender and group methodologies. The socio-educational projects they teach have a transversal perspective, which are reflected in positive actions for the educational and social sphere.
The education they impart is aimed at social change by promoting diversity and social movements, thus giving rise to the expression and development of social creativity. Their work and training model is based on collaborations with different entities such as centers and other associations with a similar proposal who want to promote fields related to those that the association itself promotes. All training is tailor-made and personal, depending on the entity they serve. Quoting verbatim: “Use appropriate learning techniques for each person to extract concepts, rules, and principles that can be applied to new everyday situations in their environment. We understand that it is an internal process that is acquired sequentially, as a result of the analysis, reflection, and observation of the experience”.
They define in their social commitment that "Prioritizing the social impact of projects: The economic criterion is not decisive when developing a project if we value that it has sufficient social profitability".
The Association of the Institute of Emotional Intelligence, based in Barcelona, has the mission of helping other associations and organizations, as well as centers, to create cultures and environments that help achieve the objectives established by them and personal growth. They were registered as an official association in 2015. Since then, they have promoted training through emotional intelligence workshops, which are innovative and focused on different perspectives, such as work with animals, companies, and teaching and gender materials.
Their work methodology is based on individual and personal training, of an academic format, in which they develop their functions based on the knowledge of the conclusive factor of emotional intelligence and the leadership of emotions. As well as helping to differentiate the types of emotions, and classes, such as toxic or positive. All the knowledge that they apply to companies can be transversal and transferable to the classrooms.
Its team of trainers is led by its founder and director Gemma Garcia Godall (2015), who states that “organizations with positive energy are more efficient. My dedication is to help management teams align personal goals with team goals”. Clearly, it is a vision focused on the company, but we can draw many positive conclusions and a lot of training and methodologies to apply in the classroom.
The chosen Center, in this case, the San Cristobal School, is a center located in the city of Castellón de la Plana, the center covers both Early Childhood Education and Primary Education, besides Compulsory Secondary Education, High School, and Training Cycles.
The objectives they propose with this project are:
• Improve knowledge of one´s own emotions
• Greater emotional competence
• Identify the emotions of others
• Control one´s own emotions
Their Emotional Education project is followed on social networks through the hashtag #DEMAYORSERFELIZ.ES, the cornerstone of this project is emotional intelligence, they quote on their website, as the beginning of their project definition, the psychologist Daniel Goleman: "The more open we are towards our feelings, the better we can read those of others", making a clear allusion to the empathy of emotions, which they want to bring to their educational and social project. After this introduction they give some bases of what they understand by the composition of Emotional Intelligence based on five bases:
• Emotional Awareness: which they define based on the principle developed by the philosopher Socrates of ‘know yourself’, in order to be aware of the emotions that we live and recognize them, since otherwise, we could not control them.
• Emotional Regulation: here comes emotional control, this part is defined as the ability to manage one's feelings. I consider this part fundamental in emotional intelligence, but also a distant goal within a long process of emotional management and emotional education since it is one of the most complex and important parts of this field.
• Self-esteem: self-esteem is also very important when it comes to achieving optimal emotional intelligence, as it is a determining factor in motivation.
• Socio-emotional skills: these skills are based, on their definitions, on empathy, to better sympathize with others and their desires, which creates appropriate subjects to play roles in the helping and service professions.
• Skills for life and well-being: they consider it essential to establish good relationships with others to obtain popularity, leadership, and interpersonal efficiency.
This last point is not considered important. This research proposes the creation of emotionally competent subjects, regardless of their popularity or their leadership capacity.
To publicize the said project, they define it as follows:
“At the San Cristobal School, we develop emotional intelligence with a specific program through which we equip our students with the necessary skills so that they become aware of their own emotions, learn to manage them, and understand the feelings of others, thus growing and developing as persons in all areas of their life".
One aspect that we consider very important and that has been very satisfactory to me from the San Cristobal School is that all the teachers involved in the Emotional Intelligence project have carried out prior training, to have a solid base of knowledge and so that they are prepared and competent to carry out such a project. This training has been carried out by Mr. Rafael Bisquerra, an expert professor in emotional intelligence.
Finally, they refer to the results that they have achieved by carrying out said project, these results are completely exposed by the center itself, that is, they do not have a certification that they are true or not, but what they expose is the following:
• Improved academic performance.
• Increased social skills and successful interpersonal relationships.
• Better school, social, and family adaptation.
• Decreased self-destructive thoughts, improved self-esteem.
• Decrease in eating disorders.
• Decreased initiation of drug use.
• Decrease in anxiety, stress, sadness, and depressive symptoms.
• Less antisocial behavior.
Comparison and deductions
For the comparison between the associations, we are going to use a self-made table to express more graphically the situation and function of each one of them, since many similarities unite them, but also their differences make them unique and useful in different fields at the same time.
This table has been developed based on seven sections that we have taken into account, considering them the most important when evaluating the validity of an association or center specialized in emotional intelligence in terms of our parameters, it is a totally subjective consideration, subject to what has been learned and considered in the studies and research carried out, likewise, some sections of the table will have a numerical rating from 1 to 10, given subjectively, where 1 means little utility and 10 optimal utility.
|
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Alaiz collective association |
Association of the institute of emotional intelligence |
San cristobal school |
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Exclusivity with children |
NO |
NO |
YES |
|
Profit motivation |
NO |
YES |
NO |
|
Previous contextualization |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Exclusivity of emotional projects |
NO |
NO |
YES |
|
School utility |
7 |
8 |
10 |
|
Social project |
8 |
8 |
10 |
|
Educational project |
6 |
7 |
9 |
Source: Alaiz Collective Association. Socio-educational Projects. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3eet1mG. Association of the Institute of Emotional Intelligence (2015) Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2YKse69. San Cristobal School (2013) Educational Project/Emotional Education. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/37F3WyQ
The three associations are optimal in terms of the work they offer and their affinity to centers, but there are some factors to highlight.
First of all, the two associations work with and for children, but not exclusively, they cover many more areas such as gender violence, business leadership, or executive coaching. This is not a negative trait, only that when it comes to working with children of the age range that we have chosen for this research (3-12 years old), the work carried out by the San Cristobal center is more optimal.
The work of both associations is transferable to centers and classrooms, but it would not be a perpetual or continuous help, but rather punctual, instead the San Cristobal Center´s project is totally transferable to the classroom and other schools, to work continuously and throughout the academic year.
Both the center and associations speak of results, but it is difficult to verify their veracity without entering into study contact of their work.
Finally, we consider that the best method is the one applied by the San Cristobal Center, since it works continuously, not punctually, so that it can be used throughout all primary cycles, without exclusion, in the way in which it is carried out by the center, and this project would be carried out by students and teachers from the beginning of primary school until they finish it.
Other centers, with similar projects, did not specify whether the teacher received prior instructions to carry out the said project. This situation is not favorable, since putting teachers in charge of a project of this type without knowing their previous knowledge about it or the contextualization that the teacher has, implies that some teachers may not be optimal for carrying it out.
CONCLUSIONS
Fortunately, we have drawn many conclusions from this research, which will help us continue in future research.
In the first place, many associations and centers prefer that their projects be based more on the visibility of the terms of ‘Emotional Education’, ‘Emotional Intelligence’, or ‘Emotional Management’, than on the validity of said project itself. These terms are not given the importance they deserve when working on them, at least that is the conclusion drawn by looking at the projects of some centers and associations.
On the other hand, the influence of emotions in the framework of education is too high for not even 5% of schools to carry out any type of practice in this area. We must encourage, from all the members that make up the educational community, a greater practice of managing emotions. This does not mean starting a large project cold at all primary levels, on the contrary, the construction of these projects takes time and usually a lot of research, study, and, above all, training of teachers.
The centers must know that psychologists and psycho-pedagogues are there to learn from them and work with them. This sector is not given the necessary importance for a good performance of teaching practice and the proper functioning of teaching-learning strategies.
Currently, the term is gaining strength, in most cases due to fashion, but there are many cases in which the work to be done by teachers and the implication and positive consequences they have on the student at the educational and social level are taken seriously, therefore much progress is being made in this matter, since over the years, looking at older articles, it is seen how the demand for research on emotional management has grown and how the term and its coinage has been refined, as well as a more appropriate profile of the teacher when working said management with and for the students.
Finally, speaking globally about the different associations and centers, we draw various conclusions.
In the first place, in the research carried out to look for different associations, we have seen that a climate of speculation and economic interest, as well as fraud, has been created, based on the fashion that emotional intelligence and management lives based on new practices such as mindfulness. Some associations sell and advertise methods at an abusive price for which they ensure 100% success and try to attract you by ensuring a series of factors that will be achieved when buying said method, these factors are impossible to ensure without knowing the prior context of the subject with which we must work. This is truly disturbing and, on a personal level, I find it distressing. They are taking advantage of a problem of self-esteem or emotional need of a subject just for the fact of getting money in return, through false advertising and deception, offering false hope without 100% knowing if the work they sell is truly effective. Even many of these associations do not explain who has developed their studies or their research, or who carries out their work, nor their degrees or specializations.
Second, many of the associations, apart from those that were a fraud, were working for profit, obviously not a bad thing, since some associations base their income on the work they do, it is only a point to highlight. Most of these associations are made up of psychologists and psycho-pedagogues, and their work is paid.
From the point of view of the research questions that we posed at the beginning of this research, the following conclusions should be mentioned:
What impact do emotions have on the level of learning?
Emotions have a direct influence on learning. It works in direct proportion to the level that the student is emotionally good or bad, so helping a student to be emotionally competent is very important.
How does emotional management influence social skills in the school environment?
Emotional management helps create emotionally competent subjects who develop superior self-esteem and motivation and improve their self-concept, besides creating empathy and knowledge of the emotions of others that will help them in their social development.
What impact does emotional intelligence have on school success or failure?
School success and failure are influenced by emotions in a way that they help or hinder the level of attention and, therefore, the level of assimilation of content.
What need is there to establish emotional management in the classroom?
The need is latent in the sense that there would be an improvement on a social and academic level in students due to the results that we have seen that they obtain when they are emotionally competent.
5. What techniques are the most appropriate to work on emotional management in the school environment?
The techniques should vary depending on the contextualization of each subject. But the most important thing is to carry out individualized management, without generalizations, in which we see the students in their context and work based on what was previously observed.
How could we establish emotional management in the current curriculum?
For this, we should see the educational project in the curriculum of each Autonomous Community and survey the members of the educational community of what can be eliminated or with what we can combine to give way to establishing Emotional Management in the classrooms since in most communities the curriculum is very tight in time.
7. What projects are currently being carried out on emotional education in primary education classrooms? What are their results? Common features of these projects.
Currently, some centers carry out some Emotional Education and Emotional Intelligence projects, publicize them, and use them as a claim, but they do not verify their results and do not contrast them, besides not being very transparent when exposing their operation. The techniques they use are very similar, and also do not usually explain who carries out these programs or with what training. So current projects, in general terms, have too much room for improvement.