Can EmotionaI Intelligence and Social-Emotional Learning in Schools Potentially Save Lives?
Leadership Support | Emotional Intelligence | Social Emotional Learning | Jun 11 | Written By Lori LaCivita, Ph.D.
Has the trauma, social isolation, and/or disruption in routine associated with the pandemic resulted in mental health problems that students may not know how to handle? Can their attempts to cope result in deadly violence? Do we have any strategies to address these challenges? We do! Students can learn to effectively confront and resolve emotional turmoil and aggression. Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) initiatives can assist students in the development of empathy, anger management, self-regulation, impulse control, and problem-solving.
Salovey and Mayer (1990) describe EI as the “ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”. Mayer and Salovey (1997) argued that EI is a set of affective processing capabilities in which greater EI leads to improved ability to interact with others in various highly charged situations. Likely due to this relationship between EI and advanced socio-emotional functioning, authors have suggested that EI is positively related to various attributes such as self-awareness, self-management, and self-efficacy (Goleman,2015).
Schools are beginning to understand the importance of bringing in coaches and consultants who are experts in emotional intelligence development training, services, and coaching to build and cultivate an optimal school environment using emotional intelligence strategies. School systems that want to positively affect their bottom line, student well-being, and reduce school violence, should focus on building a healthy and collaborative environment that promotes emotional intelligence strategies and effective social and emotional learning. The use of EI to aid the student’s developmental process can address these challenges, especially when we embed it into our SEL curriculum, classroom practices, and school counseling. Fostering EI can help students in adapting to the environmental demands and pressures of a school environment, especially in this white-water, turbulent time brought on by the pandemic and its ongoing challenges and lasting effects (Herrenkohl et al., 2021).
Teaching students the skills to understand and manage their emotions has been tied to a significant reduction in aggression, which is evident in school shooters (Espelage et al., 2015). These initiatives also have seen declines in suspension, suicidal thoughts, and improvements in emotion regulation and academic outcomes. When we use social and emotional learning programs, we target everyone, not a particular group or individual. That is, mental health tools are made available to individuals who fit the typical school shooter profile, individuals who are unexpected but capable of being shooters, and to every other student. Thus, every student is provided mental health tools that are beneficial across the board (Espelage et al., 2015).
Teaching students the skills to understand and manage their emotions has been tied to a significant reduction in aggression, which is evident in school shooters (Espelage et al., 2015). These initiatives also have seen declines in suspension, suicidal thoughts, and improvements in emotion regulation and academic outcomes. When we use social and emotional learning programs, we target everyone, not a particular group or individual. That is, mental health tools are made available to individuals who fit the typical school shooter profile, individuals who are unexpected but capable of being shooters, and to every other student. Thus, every student is provided mental health tools that are beneficial across the board (Espelage et al., 2015).
The pandemic resulting in school closures seemed to temporarily stop school shootings. Now, as students physically return to school, it is imperative that we are resolved to not lose sight that there are things we can do to help these horrific events from occurring and not lose any additional innocent lives to school shootings. We must commandeer the opportunity to end school violence or at the very least, mitigate it through EI and SEL strategies.
Espelage, D.L., Low, S., Polanin, J.R., & Brown, E.C. (2015)
Clinical trial of Second Step middle-school program: Impact on aggression & victimization. Journal of Applied
Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990).
Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185–211.
Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997).
What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey, & D. J. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications. Basic Books.
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST!
Sign up with your email address to receive tips, resources, and articles about educational leadership.
Contact us at support@educationleadershipservices.com for more information about our programs.
All Rights Reserved 2023