My response to Sir Ken Robinson's take on Emotional Intelligence
Quote: “Emotional intelligence includes a range of personal and interpersonal qualities: being able to understand and express personal feelings; being able to get along with other people, to communicate clearly and with empathy for the listener; and responding positively and with sensitivity to new situations” (175).
Questions: How can we teach our students “personally growth” and “emotional intelligence?” What are some lesson ideas we can incorporate into our classrooms? What are some practices we can make a part of our everyday classrooms to stimulate emotional growth for our students? How can we incorporate emotional intelligence and personal growth into the maths and sciences?
Quote: “Emotional intelligence includes a range of personal and interpersonal qualities: being able to understand and express personal feelings; being able to get along with other people, to communicate clearly and with empathy for the listener; and responding positively and with sensitivity to new situations” (175).
Questions: How can we teach our students “personally growth” and “emotional intelligence?” What are some lesson ideas we can incorporate into our classrooms? What are some practices we can make a part of our everyday classrooms to stimulate emotional growth for our students? How can we incorporate emotional intelligence and personal growth into the maths and sciences?
Connection:
We need to teach our students how to be emotionally intelligent! There seems to be a disconnect between education and emotions/feelings. We tend to value logic/reasoning over emotions in the educational world. I love the above quote, because these personal and interpersonal skills are so important to any job field. People need these personal and interpersonal skills to be successful, to be respected, and to be valued. We need to teach these skills to our students. When thinking about how I can teach emotional intelligence, I am reminded of a few really awesome lessons that Patricia Stall had us teacher candidates participate in. In her lessons, she taught us the traits of good and bad listeners and as well, had us participate in certain activities where we weren't aloud to speak out of a certain order, so that students could fully explain their ideas. Her instructions were often very difficult, because we wanted to engage in the conversations that our peers were having. The lessons showed us teacher candidates how difficult it is to be a good listener and not interject our thoughts when we want to. I learned that we often do not fully listen to the ideas of our peers, because we begin to make assumptions and opinions often before we allow our peers to finish their thoughts. The practice of good listening is something that I have been working on lately and try to be cognisant of. I would like to incorporate/teach these type of skills into my classrooms. Listening skills, surprisingly need to be taught, we do not simply have these skills even if we think we do; even us adults struggle!
Epiphany/Aha: Robinson states that many people tend to “feel out of touch with their feelings” (174). I believe there to be a lot of truth in his statement, as the Western world of medicine seems to value and distribute an overwhelming amount of pharmaceutical medications that are meant to aid human anxieties and emotional disorders. Frankly, it seems that while some may indeed need these types of medications, there are probably a large amount of people who could benefit from alternatives to these pharmaceutical drugs.Yet, their lacking of emotional intelligence and ability to understand their feelings are the reason they seek out these drugs in the first place. If we taught our students how to be emotionally intelligent and how to understand their feelings, our students would be better equipped for their futures.