Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important For Students
MS Dhoni Global School
It takes more than just academic excellence for your child to be successful. Intelligence quotient is certainly essential but one cannot neglect the importance of emotional quotient.
Whether it is your workplace, your home, a public place or even and essentially, your child’s school, emotional intelligence is indispensable. It is only through developed emotional intelligence that most problems can be identified, acknowledged and resolved accordingly.
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
The ability to understand, identify, acknowledge and act accordingly on one’s own as well as other’s emotions, is termed as emotional intelligence. An evolved sense of emotional intelligence helps a person to imply and resolve problems with the help of emotions. It helps one to communicate better and more effectively as well.
Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important For Students?
In contemporary times, when students are juggling between continuous classes, assignments, assessments and more, it more than important to keep them emotionally balanced.
Education has predominantly been linked to and limited to academic excellence time and again. Although, it is necessary to be academically decent but that is not all to succeed in life. Certain life skills including problem solving abilities, ability to face rejection, understand others and more, also play an integral part in helping one succeed. These unquantifiable qualities cannot be developed overnight.
It has been found that students with increased emotional intelligence can manage themselves better and connect to the ones around them. This directly leads to enhanced self-motivation and more effective communication which are necessary skills that help students to become confident learners.
Students lacking emotional intelligence, on the other hand, may grow less connected to their institution which may negatively impact their academic performance. This may also be an underlying cause of unfriendly or harsh behaviour with peers, pessimistic attitude, lack of confidence and similar issues that can break a child’s career.
Prominent Qualities Of Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional literacy – The primary purpose of emotional literacy is to identify emotions of oneself as well as of the one’s around. Once identified, only then can a child deal with the emotions appropriately.
- Managing emotions – Often children and adults tend to react in an unpleasant way due to their momentary emotional state. Actions, reactions and decisions based on such emotions may result to a complete and unrepairable disaster. It is thus, necessary to acknowledge and control one’s emotions according to situations.
- Developing empathy – Empathy is a rare but one quality that can turn things around. It is as important to understand how others feel as it is know one’s own feelings. Great leaders have preached the power of empathy and how it can make lives easier. Children will be more welcoming, accepting and adjustable to any given circumstances with an evolved sense of empathy.
- Intrinsic motivation – It is one thing to be motivated by external forces and a whole different thing to be self-motivated. Both laziness and motivation are emotionally induced. An emotionally intelligent child will weigh the pros and cons of being lazy and/ or motivated and will intrinsically choose to be motivated more often.
How To Develop Emotional Intelligence In Students?
Only through conscious efforts can emotional intelligence be developed in students. To deal with several emotional challenges, students need to identify and acknowledge emotions as they are.
For instance, stress is a popularly perceived stigma which is not always a bad thing. Stress can be further identified as eustress and distress. Eustress is the short-lived, positive stress that motivates to take action. Distress, on the other hand, is a negative and long-term stress that leads to anxiety and depression.
Here’s how we can develop emotional intelligence in students.
- Identify – As discussed, identifying an emotion and acknowledging it solves half the trouble. Whereas, ignoring an emotion might lead to outbursts and prolonged conditions of mental health issues.
- Listen – Students are dealing with concerns that are not always familiar. It is thus, important to listen to them. Teachers and parents should pay heed to their concerns and listen to what they have to say. This will also teach them the vital art of listening.
- Empathize – It is natural to not exactly understand their problems and consider them significant. However, empathizing and acknowledging how students feel and assuring your presence is necessary. This will help them understand that they are not alone and they will have the window to come to you with their concerns.
- Impart problem solving skills – Only when the aforementioned measures are followed, problems can be solved. Teaching students the ability to solve problems will help them overcome many challenges in life.
- Set examples – Students tend to learn more effectively through examples. Communicate clearly with them and follow the necessary patterns to help them learn what’s right.
These habits will not only help them evolve as emotionally intelligent persons but will also help them learn academics more effectively.
