At the launch of Embodied Emotions, a new Queen Mary University of London research project looking into Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL), University of Manchester researcher David Spendlove argued that schools too often ignore the emotional needs of the adults responsible for engaging with children while ‘artificially adding on’ emotional literacy to other school responsibilities.
Thomas Dixon, Director of the QMUL Centre for the History of Emotions observed that one difference between today’s proponents of social and emotional learning and their Victorian predecessors is that the former are concerned to teach children and young people how to express and manage their emotions, while the latter aimed to control and drive out destructive passions.
Kathryn Ecclestone, from the University of Birmingham, repeated her claim that a focus on emotional wellbeing in education is based on dubious research and detracts from academic success.
More information about the Embodied Emotions project is available here.
I have long since argued this point i.e. how can you teach emotional education if you have no training in emotional literacy and emotional intelligence.
I prefer the term Emotional Education because it implies that there is a learning process people can go through in order to become emotionally intelligent as it is not necessarily a set intelligence quotient like IQ,
with Emotional Education being the combination or Emotional literacy and Emotional Intelligence.
I also am an advocate of the need for experiential learning as found at The University of Derby through their Post Graduate certificate in Emotional Education (PGCEE), as to teach feelings one much first experience them, which you can’t do simply by reading books which is a more thought process. To know about toxic shame and it’s causes may be read about but to truly know what it is has to be experienced, for example.
I am an advocate of adding experiential emotional education to all teacher training.
The University of Derby were also looking at an MA in Emotional Education to be delivered in part by Atlow Mill Centre for Emotional Education (www.atlowmill.org).
Society may be broken in part due to a lack of emotional maturity. A possible cure could well be found in a revolution in education, which focuses on EQ as much as IQ.
People who demonstrate the skills of emotional intelligence are better able to:
• Make objective decisions
• Know their limitations
• Be proactive
• Embrace new ideas
• Adapt to change
• Demonstrate creative resourcefulness
• Maintain honesty and integrity
• Lead effectively
• Make and maintain relationships
• Communicate effectively
• Manage stress
• Demonstrate resilience
• Maintain hope and optimism.
Love from
Duncan
Comment by Duncan Stuart — February 26, 2010 @ 10:09 pm
Duncan, Thanks for this. At Antidote, we go even beyond this – to say that every interaction we have is an opportunity to build emotional understanding or to undermine it. Therefore, we need to look at how our communities are organised. Does this support open community and strong connectedness, or make it more difficult. We need, in short, to embed emotional education into our schools, our business and our lives – rather than seeing it as an add-on.
Comment by James Park — March 17, 2010 @ 10:31 am