Emotional Intelligence- Can EI Help Our Students To Become Better Learners?

              

We get to hone our academic skills and abilities at our schools, but where should we go to exercise our Emotional Intelligence (EI)? It is true that performance of many students is often affected by internal struggles. So why are not focusing on enhancing their emotional intelligence along with their academic aptitude? Is emotional intelligence not as important as academic performance? I am sure that a number of students will surely benefit from learning sessions that focus on various factors which affect their motivation, happiness, concentration etc.

Do We Need To Teach Emotional Intelligence In Schools?

Teaching emotional intelligence will undoubtedly increase the overall performance of numerous learners in different disciplines, even those which are not related. Why? The answer is quite simple. Our ability to absorb new information or learn a new skill is governed by our emotions. We need to guide our students properly so that they can effectively steer their immensely difficult and complex minds. Most of us are aware that we get a better understanding about ourselves and our identities as we grow older. Hence we just keep moving forward so that we can carry on with ourselves.

However, nowadays learners have no time to understand their identities as everyone is busy to secure good scores for standard tests. Most of us tend to get confused about who we are down the road and then restart our journey for find ourselves all over again. Unfortunately, I have seen a number of schools refuse to invest time, money and effort to improve the emotional intelligence of their students.

Teach To Be Happy

Why is it that our students don’t get to study about motivation or happiness? Even though they are not taught how to improve concentration in the classroom, still most teachers expect to see most of these qualities - motivation, concentration, determination- in their students. When our students fail to exhibit their qualities, they are enquired about the problem. The question here is how will the students know what the problem is?

They have never been told or taught about the things that might result in lack of motivation or affect their focus. Instead, students are identified as “clinically uninterested” in learning and schooling.

Although we do no not teach our students about the mechanics of their emotions and minds, we still expect them to understand their own emotions like grammar, science or maths. But why? Educators spend several years to teach students about various academic subjects, but none of us are concerned about educating them about their emotions.

Restructuring Education Is Necessary

So how can teachers expect their students to know why they are unable to concentrate in class? How will they know? It is the task of the educator. As no one has any idea about the root of the problem, students are conveniently prescribed mood-stabilizers and anti-depressants to improve their focus and performance. What teachers and parents need to realise is making young minds numb with pills is highly risky.

Medication can only treat symptoms, not the real problem. For instance, many young learners are diagnosed with ADHD, which is a side-effect of unproductive education. So instead of giving them pills like Ritalin, we need to focus on reforming educational practices.

Focus On Emotions, Not Just Academics

Nowadays, the education system solely concentrates on academic intellect of the student population. This process result in making students distanced from their own emotions. As emotions are hard to understand and manage, we need to shift the focus of education towards catering to the emotional intelligence of students. Most schools think teaching about emotional intelligence is nothing bust wastage of time.

But unless our students are not taught understand their own selves, how will they understand anything else? Will forcing all this knowledge and information onto the learners be any good to them in the long run?

What do you think? Kindly share your thoughts and views on the need for emotional intelligence in education by commenting below. We would love to hear from you.

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