Theory Review: Understanding Emotional Intelligence in Learning

Andi Miller

 

Name	Commented On
Andi Miller	Ashten Lail
Andi Miller	David Barry

 

            

        Intrapersonal or emotional intelligence is one of the seven intelligences identified in Gardner’s proposed theory of multiple intelligences (MacKeracher, 2004). It is defined as the ability for one to acknowledge and decipher their own feelings; this self-awareness guides one in their behavior and knowledge of their own wants, needs, strengths and weaknesses and intelligences (MacKeracher, 2004). Emotions and the energy the human body expels are necessary in learning and these emotions explain why someone chooses to learn and what keeps them going when barriers present themselves. Emotional intelligence play into the emotions of learning because it is a necessary skill for a learner to build resilience, work toward their educational and career goals, and to build healthy relationships.

Main Theoretical Points

According to Mackeracher, there are five components of emotional intelligence that is supported by the work of Goleman, Salovey, and Mayer; these components are, knowing one’s emotions, managing one’s emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others and handling relationships (2004). These components are vital in the continued research, understanding and application of emotional intelligence in the classroom. 

            The first component to address is knowing one’s emotions or self-awareness. This concept is the act of recognizing emotions as they happen, whether they are positive or negative, and those who are deemed emotionally intelligent can accurately perceive, respond, and express their emotions (MacKeracher, 2004). Teachers must understand why some students can face adversity in their learning journey and others cannot (Mega et al., 2014). It is important to note the influence of emotions and the value of teaching self-awareness as a skill to support not only academic success but also life success. Self-awareness of one’s emotions as a skill carry over to professional settings and evidence suggests that this skill is often lacking in managers (Sheldon et al., 2014). This is important to note, as adults continue to learn in their field, self-awareness is necessary to evaluate their own performance and remain a skilled worker. 

            The second component discussed is managing one’s emotions. Managing emotions included monitoring, evaluating, and regulating one’s moods and emotions; doing so allows individuals to handle feelings as they happen, minimizing the effect of emotions on the ability to think as well as controlling impulsivity (MacKeracher, 2004). This skill builds on self-awareness by actively regulating the effect of emotions to remain on task. The ability to regulate emotions also allows students to participate in self-regulated learning, meaning they are in control of how they learn and the ability to be a responsible learner (Mega et al., 2014).  Self-regulated learning is linked to emotions because the more positive emotions a learner experience then the higher likelihood they also implore self-regulated learning tools that influence academic success. Teachers can address emotions through achievement and mastery activities, empowering students to build regulation skills with their emotions and the tools they use to self-regulate learning (Mega et al., 2014). Managing this component of emotional intelligene is also linked to performance in the workplace. Studies show that feedback interventions often fail because workers have not developed the skill of emotional management (Sheldon et al., 2014). Meaning that those workers with lower emotional intelligence often dismiss negative feedback and avoid skill development, this lack of skill in turn affects organizational competence and overall product (Sheldon et al., 2014).

            The third component of emotional intelligence is motivating oneself, meaning learners can harness their emotions to persist through barriers (MacKeracher, 2004). Motivation is important to note in the classroom because not every has the same goal or motivation and while positive emotions can motivate a learner to persevere, negative emotions can also impact a learners ability solve problems. There are three aspects of motivation are theoretically linked: implicit intelligence theory, self-efficacy, and achievement goals (Mega et al., 2014). Implicit theories of intelligence support both ideas of motivation; one being that motivation is a malleable factor and the other being that motivation is fixed (Mega et al., 2014). This is important because based on which idea a student subscribes to, it will affect how they process emotions and in turn what self-regulated learning activities they partake in. Self-efficacy is strongly linked to past achievements, difficulties, and the personal history of a student (Mega et al., 2014). The idea of self-efficacy is directly related to the skill of emotion regulation, for students to build self-efficacy within the classroom they must also be able to manage negative emotions. Finally, achievement goal theory, is one of the most researched motivation frameworks, and the goals students set represent their purpose within learning (Mega et al., 2014). It is important for educators to tie emotion regulation with motivation to encourage self-efficacy and increase achievement goal setting. 

            The fourth component of emotional intelligence moves from self and moves to recognizing emotions in others. Addressing emotions in others requires empathy and being aware of the wants and needs of others; the ability to hone this skill increase perception of being genuine and kind, while the lack of skill often results in perceptions of being cold or oblivious (MacKeracher, 2004). A responsibility to teach this skill, lies in the ability of teachers to first learn empathy as a professional disposition. Empathy is a skill necessary to teach across diverse student populations effectively, specifically white teachers who are in classrooms that are racially diverse (Warren, 2013). The skill is learned in two phases, the first being to acquire new knowledge and the second being strategic negation of the new knowledge along with the feedback of students to adjust student-teacher interactions on a pedagogic level (Warren, 2013).

            Finally, the fifth component addresses handling relationships with others. Managing emotions and moods with oneself as well as others is essential to build relationships. This requires one to be self-aware of emotions within themselves and others as well as regulate those emotions to respond in an appropriate and effective way (MacKeracher, 2004). This skill is just as important in facilitators because classrooms can often evoke an array of emotions and the ability to do so persuasively will help encourage academic success as well as build emotional intelligence in students. Groups are often used in classrooms to build practical knowledge of topic material, but it is important to note that groups serve as social systems. Collective emotional intelligence is the ability for a group to regulate member and groups emotions through set group norms (Curşeu et al., 2014). Studies also note the importance of acknowledging gender when building groups to increase the collective emotional intelligence of groups. Women often have higher social sensitivity and relational orientation, therefore encouraging teachers to allow women to lead groups to encourage relationship building and the overall collective emotional intelligence of learning groups (Curşeu et al., 2014).

Application

Self-awareness and regulation application

            Being aware of one’s emotions and the ability to regulate emotions as they present themselves is a foundational skill to becoming emotionally intelligent. These skills are necessary to building a better relationship with learning, educational outcomes, job performance and satisfaction with life (Mega et al., 2014) (Pirsoul et al., 2021). Pirsoul et al., found that the better a person is at comprehending and regulating their emotions, the more likely they would have job satisfaction, less emotional exhaustion, better work-family balance, and less conflict at work (2021).  It was also found by Mega et al., that undergraduate students who understood their feelings about academic standards, goals, and outcomes then they are more likely they were to succeed in the classroom (2014).  These skills can be taught in the classroom and by facilitators like career counselors. First teachers can use assessment tools such as the Motivation Questionnaire or the Emotional Questionnaire so students and facilitator can get a baseline of where they are at and can grow within the emotional intelligence. Second teachers can offer reflection activities throughout the class syllabus. This will not be just about if they enjoyed certain projects or not but a deep dive into their feelings and reactions to those feelings. This will allow teachers to check-in with students emotionally and help guide if necessary to encourage academic success. 

Empathy application

            Learning and building empathy as a teaching tool is necessary to serve diverse classrooms in the way they deserve, especially students of color. To do this, teachers and facilitators must learn their students’ preferences for social interaction, learning styles, communication patterns and issues that matter to them most (Warren, 2013). Facilitators can emerge themselves in the learning of their students by completing initial surveys at the beginning of the course that ask cultural questions a long with learning style questions. This can give a foundation for what the teacher can look out for when addressing students, putting them in groups and when deciding on what material to focus on in lessons. While there are concrete ways to build empathy, it is important to note that this skill and knowledge is built upon throughout classroom time. Teachers must constantly be observing interactions between students, their peers, and other teachers, only then can you apply empathy and improve student-teacher interactions. 

Building relationships application

            

    Group work is a corner stone of classrooms and while it can offer some students with learning material in a collective manor, it also brings up other skills necessary for the work force like teamwork and conflict resolution. Building relationships and recognizing how others’ feel are two of the five components necessary to be emotionally intelligent and in order build this skill, students need to work with others, whether they enjoy it or not. Gender and the roles that society has built for men and women within this binary gender spectrum can play a role in the effectiveness of group work (Curşeu et al., 2014). 

In a study by Curşeu et al., the higher the percentage of women in a group the higher the collective emotional intelligence of the group was and in turn the more effective the group was (2014). Women, tend to have more emotional and social skills that encourage them to lead and work in teams in an effective way. Facilitators can take this data and use it to their advantage in two ways. One being that when creating small groups, they make sure that the women in the class are split evenly with at least two or more in a group. This will increase the likelihood that groups will have better teamwork, less conflict and will be more competent in the work. The second way is to acknowledge how cultural norms have created this imbalance of emotional intelligence amongst men and women and that gender is not a binary system. By doing so, teachers can create an atmosphere that teaches emotional intelligence growth and creates a safe space for all students including those who do not identify as cis gender. 

 

Reflection

Highlights

            Two highlights came out of my theory review of emotional intelligence in learning. The first being the articles I found to support how emotional intelligence is used in the professional setting. Often adult education theory revolves around academia or a formal classroom, but to see how businesses and professionals can use emotional intelligence theory to build a better work force was interesting to me. Adult education happens in many types of classrooms and career development is one area I am interested in perusing in my own professional life, being able to pair this interest with my interest in building my own emotional intelligence was enlightening.

            The second highlight that came out of my theory review was my personal self-reflection of my own level of emotional intelligence. I did not have a traditional undergraduate experience and I have carried those past experiences with me for a while, causing negative emotions around my own self-efficacy in school. Learning more about each component of emotional intelligence has encouraged me to address those emotions to better my self-regulated learning as well as my skills as a facilitator.  

Process

            To begin the research process, I first read Chapter 6, Emotions and motives in learning, by Dorothy Mackeracher to gain a better grasp of how emotions effect learning. Through that reading I found the excerpt on emotional intelligence and found the five components of emotional intelligence interesting. This led to my academic research on the Ball State online library, where I used the main points and definition of the components to research how emotional intelligence influences adult education. 

            I was able to find one article that gave an overview of emotions in learning, 3 articles that addressed self-awareness, emotion regulation, and motivation and the remaining article gave insight to recognizing emotions in others and building relationships. All articles gave practical knowledge on how to use theory in the classroom or professional setting. 

             

Main Theoretical Ideas	How to Apply the Idea
Knowing one’s own emotions	Self-awareness is the hallmark to the skills of knowing one’s emotions (MacKeracher, 2004). The ability to name and react to emotions in an appropriate manor is necessary to build an effective workforce (Sheldon et al., 2014). In career training, facilitators can build self-awareness by conducting practical skill assessments, creating an environment where workers can accurately assess their work and address the emotions that accompany success or failure.
Managing one’s emotions	The ability to manage emotions is linked to academic and professional success (Mega et al., 2014) (Sheldon et al., 2014). Learning to assess one’s emotions and the ability to not allow emotions to hinder success is vital. Facilitators who offer mastery or achievement activities, offer students a chance to build positive emotions around emotion regulation. This can be in the form of feedback interventions with works to build regulating negative emotions when confronted with negative feedback.
Motivating oneself	There are three theoretical aspects linked to motivation. They are implicit learning intelligences, self-efficacy, and achievement goal theory (Mega et al., 2014). Facilitators can use these theories in practice to build motivation. First acknowledging how students relate to motivation in a malleable or fixed view, which can in turn affect perceptions of self-efficacy. Second, by creating task-oriented activities to build self-efficacy. Finally, the facilitator can create achievement goals based on the task activities which will also encourage positive self-efficacy. By combining all approaches positive emotions around learning are created and in turn encourage motivation to continue learning.
Recognizing emotions in others	Empathy is a necessary tool for facilitators to learn and implement in classrooms to building relationships and encourage emotional intelligence among students. Practically, Warren suggests that building empathy happens in two phases. 1. Gaining new knowledge 2. Interpreting new knowledge along with student feedback to adjust student-teacher interactions (2013).
Handling relationships	Collective emotional intelligence is the ability for groups to regulate self and group emotions through a set of norms (Curşeu et al., 2014). Acknowledging societal gender roles and the increased skill women have in navigating social groups is important in building collective emotional intelligence in classrooms. In a practical setting, teachers should encourage groups to elect women as leaders and to set social norms to navigate the inevitable emotions that will arise in group work.

 

 

References:

 

Curşeu, P. L., Pluut, H., Boroş, S., & Meslec, N. (2015). The magic of collective emotional intelligence in learning groups: No guys needed for the spell! British Journal of Psychology (London, England : 1953), 106(2), 217–234. https://doi-org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1111/bjop.12075

 

MacKeracher, Dorothy. 2004. Making sense of adult learning. Toronto: University of Toronto

Press.

 

Mega, C., Ronconi, L., & De Beni, R. (2014). What makes a good student? How emotions, self-regulated learning, and motivation contribute to academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(1), 121–131. https://doi-org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1037/a0033546

 

Pirsoul, T., Parmentier, M., & Nils, F. (2021). One step beyond emotional intelligence measurement in the career development of Adult Learners: A bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling framework. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01772-x 

 

Sheldon, O. J., Dunning, D., & Ames, D. R. (2014). Emotionally unskilled, unaware, and uninterested in learning more: Reactions to feedback about deficits in emotional intelligence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 125–137. https://doi-org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1037/a0034138

 

Warren, C. A. (2013). Towards a pedagogy for the application of empathy in culturally diverse classrooms. The Urban Review, 46(3), 395–419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-013-0262-5