Emotions play a very vital role in our lives. No amount of worldly success can fill our heart’s void if we don’t have the skill to manage our emotions. Emotional intelligence development is a slow process on the foundation of our social interaction. The post-pandemic scenario has given birth to a new kind of social uncertainty, and isolation has become a new norm. Significantly online education has affected the students in their cultivating years, and deprivation of social life is a reality.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is also called emotional quotient during various conversations. In simple language, we can recognize and manage emotions. The overall emotional intelligence has three parts.
- Identification and labeling of emotions
- Manage and use the feelings to channel thoughts
- Controlling and managing emotions in response to other’s emotions
Emotions make our lives worthy of an experience. All these feelings create unique memories and emotional learnings for us. The problem starts when we don’t understand our feelings and don’t know how to channel them.
When teachers and students lack physical interaction, things can be tricky. Even though the situation is unique, a solution must come, as students cannot lose their precious years to develop emotional intelligence in online classes.
What is the Best Way to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence?
Increasing emotional intelligence is achievable. Some are manageable by yourself, and for the rest, your surrounding can come to help. The process of harnessing emotional intelligence has four main parts to it.
• Self Management
One must practice focusing on the positive aspects of their surroundings to learn emotional intelligence. Always being positive does not come naturally to all, but conscious efforts can show promising results. Rather than sulking over what has not been in your favor, one should be thankful for what they already have with them.
• Self Awareness
Often young kids do not understand their emotions. For example, they stress minor failures under the undue influence of peer pressure. Obviously, due to lack of experience, they don’t have visibility for a larger picture of the future. Kids also fail to recognize their feelings, like intimidation or jealousy. Hence, knowing how exactly you feel is a crucial skill one should develop for better emotional intelligence.
• Social Awareness
Social awareness starts with a mindful approach towards every interaction we have in our social surroundings. During this step, one must keep the thoughts in the back seat and concentrate on the exchange. The interaction should focus on the flow of the other person’s responses and emotional shifts. Giving due respect to others’ emotions is not at all being less self-aware, and it is just a baby step toward being a more compassionate human being in society with heightened emotional intelligence.
• Relationship Management
Managing and nurturing relationships is an essential aspect of possessing emotional intelligence. Every part of our communication should undergo thorough scrutiny before being displayed to others, including verbal and non-verbal communication. Our body language and subtle gestures also determine our emotional intelligence in leadership and other social interactions. One must be mindful of the same while managing social relationships.
How to Develop Emotional Intelligence in Students?
With the onset of online education, the teachers have the additional responsibility of being instrumental in students’ improving Emotional intelligence. This responsibility is challenging to carry owing to the physical absence of the students in the classroom but not at all impossible. Let us see how a responsible teacher can deliver medium to students the opportunity to develop emotional intelligence in online classes.
• Content
In online learning, content plays a vital role in determining the quality of any lesson. The content must include various forms of information like videos, real-life examples, pictures, and more and more relatable things. As soon as the student understands the relatability of the content, they will better absorb the emotional learning. Presenting primary text-based content will have little or no outcome for the students. Interactive display content will bring more engagement, and ultimately, students will take the teacher’s message more seriously and become more receptive to their emotional intelligence in online classes.
• Feedback
The more online learning becomes interactive, the more opportunities teachers can get to understand the students’ emotional intelligence. Teachers can closely monitor the student’s behavior during the course by giving them ample opportunity to express themselves. During these sessions, teachers can take notes and provide positive feedback during one-on-one sessions. Continuous and constructive feedback is critical during the foundation years of the students.
• Assessment
Some people compare teaching with a work of art. Well, assessing one’s work is also nothing less than an art. Teachers should continuously adopt a learner-centric approach to harness their teaching skills. Every teacher should give students a fair chance to prove their abilities. Honest assessment and a more customized approach will instill positive character in the students and display the same in their future life. Hence emotional intelligence assessment is as crucial as any other learning assessment for students. Here fair, simple, and intelligent online exam proctoring is helpful to make evaluation more productive.
Conclusion: Controlled Emotions Create Intelligent Humans
Emotional intelligence(EI) is not just a fancy term, but it’s the most significant reality of our times. Kids should especially get the opportunity to develop a reasonable level of emotional intelligence in the workplace to sustain themselves in this competitive world. The responsibility lies on the shoulders of the teachers to facilitate. The online learning environment is indeed isolating. However, we can always find ways and methods to make things possible.
