Emotional Quotient

It's more important to focus on EQ than IQ

Emotional Quotient “EQ” has been defined as  "the ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions, and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth." ( Salovey & Mayer  1990) Reuven Bar-On (2006) developed one of the first measures of EI that used the term "Emotion Quotient". He defines emotional intelligence as being concerned with effectively understanding oneself and others, relating well to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands.

 

An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests attempting to measure intelligence.

 

Many educators see EQ as a crucial component for success. There is a need to develop children’s emotional skill and for that there should be an appropriate venue for teaching in this domain. Since schools are social places and learning is a social process and students do not learn alone but in collaboration with teachers and peers, hence emotions can facilitate or hamper their ultimate success in schools. And because emotional factors play such an important role, schools therefore, should attend to this aspect of the educational process for the benefit of the students (Zins, Weissberg, Wang & Walberg 2003).

 

For instance , emotional maladjustment could result in inattention and poor memorization resulting in poor school work. Anxious, unhappy and angry youngsters do not make ideal students (Lewkowicz, 1999) and those who are caught in these states do not take information efficiently or deal with it well (Goleman, 1995).

 

To quote Huffman et.al (1999), “……our current emphasis on numbers and letters as a way of judging academic readiness may be regarding children with too narrow a lens. If there is a change to be made……it may be to widen the lens of our attention so that it includes social and emotional readiness for school environment. These aspects are as powerful in predicting how well they will perform in school”.

 

 

There is a great need to have an educational system that is geared towards children as thinking and feeling beings. Feelings play an integral role in performance. During my search I found a modified teaching model that factors in the importance of EQ for academic achievement it is outlined in the diagram below.

Adapted from Safe and Sound : An Educational Leader’s Guide to Social and Emotional Learning Programs. Tools for Educators, CASEL, 2003

 

According to this approach, academic performance could be enhanced when teachers could provide safe,

caring and a well-managed environment. Within that classroom climate, teachers should provide sequenced,developmentally appropriate classroom-based instruction in the areas (as shown in the diagram) of social and emotional competence. This approach had been tested and the support evidences

indicated that creation of supportive learning environment increased students’ engagement and attachment to schools and influence significantly their academic performance (Osterman, 2000)

 

 

 

 

 

Bar-On, R. (2006). The Bar-On model of emotional-social intelligence (ESI). Psicothema, 18, supl., 13-25.

 

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (2003). Safe and Sound: An

Educational Leader’s Guide to Evidence-based Social and Emotional Learning Programs.

Chicago: Author.

 

Emotional intelligence. (2008, September 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:04, September 10, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emotional_intelligence&oldid=236991501

 

Goleman, D. 1995. Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsburry

 

Huffman, L.C., Mehlinger, S.L & kevivan, A.S 1999. Risk factors for Academic and Behavior Problems at the Beginning of School? Unpublished.

 

Osterman, K. E. 2000. Students’ Needs for Belonging in the School Community. Review of Educational Research. 70: 323– 367

 

Salovey, P. & Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185-211.

 

Zins, J.E., Weissberg, R.P., Wang, M.I. & Walberg, H.J. (Eds) 2003. Building School Success Through Social and Emotional Learning: Implications For Practice and Research. New York: Teachers College.

 

Author's Note

Written for a Human Development class my first semester at Grad School at Liberty University.