educarnival 2014 at iit delhi- becoming an emotionally intelligent teacher by lata dyaram
TRANSCRIPT
Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Teacher
Dr Lata Dyaram , IIT Madras
• IQ is about 24 points higher now than in 1918- due to better nutrition, more school, smaller family size etc. However, EQ is down compared to
the last generation. Kids now are more lonely and depressed, more angry and unruly, more nervous and prone to worry, more impulsive and more
aggressive. Now, there are rising rates of despair, alienation, drugs, juvenile crime and violence, eating disorders, unwanted pregnancies,
bullying and dropping out of school. (Daniel Goleman 2007)
• Leadership and academic leadership is largely an emotional intelligence. Some estimates put it as high as 90%. Leadership encompasses
influence, achievement drive, self confidence, team skills and political awareness. Failed leaders were too critical, moody, angry, defensive and
lacked empathy.
The Changing Teaching Scenario
• Today’s classroom is different.• Expectations of students and administration
and management are different.• Emotions are dynamic part of ourselves
whether positive or negative. • All schools are filled with emotions.
Teachers are not just Well-Oiled Machines!!
• A good teacher is charged with more positive emotions.
• It’s not just the matter of knowing the subject, using the right tools, having the correct competencies and right techniques.
• But it is a matter of having the right emotions at the right time to match the right audience.
Like Cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence is difficult to define.
Broadly speaking, EI addresses the emotional, personal, social and survival dimensions of intelligence which are often more important for daily functioning than the more traditional cognitive aspects of intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is concerned with understanding oneself and others, relating to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands.
Emotional intelligence is tactical (immediate functioning) while cognitive intelligence is strategic (long term capacity). EI helps to predict success because it reflects how a person applies knowledge to the immediate situation. In a way, to measure EI is to measure ones common sense and ability to get along in the world.
Exercise •Why emotional intelligence is important for teachers:
– I felt emotional intelligence in me when………..– I have felt emotional stress when……………………
•How did you feel in both situations. Can anyone volunteer to share their experiences of positive and negative classroom situations.
• Understanding emotions IN teaching…….. Like many kinds of jobs is not just a technical or cognitive practice but also an emotional one. (Norman Denzin, 1984)
• Caring professions like teaching not only require emotional sensitivity but also emotional labor. (Hochschild, 1993)
• There is a coordination of mind and feeling in teaching.
• Teaching is a passionate talent and good teachers are passionate about their ideas, learning and their relations with students.
Many of us are good in self management, getting up early, being self-driven, etc.
But a teacher is a leader. You need to work with groups of children or adults through influencing, developing, inspiring, motivating --- that’s social intelligence.
The teaching is all about relationships. Students need understanding, and compassion – empathy.
• When we start questioning how our behavior affects others, then that’s the point we start improving our performance.
• Other people affect us positively or negatively. But our brains are designed to have social relationships.
• All our decisions come from wisdom of emotions which is from the base of the limbic system.
• Part of decisions is the ability to respond to those gut feelings of ours.
11
Self-Awareness• Awareness of our own emotional states is the foundation of all EI skills
• Learning to ‘tune in’ to emotions – they give valid information about your responses to stressful situations
• Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one’s strengths & weaknesses
• Self-confidence: A sound sense of one’s self-worth & capabilities• verbal and non verbal cues, tone of voice• Accept responsibility for your own emotional responses• Be aware of and manage your own emotional triggers • Use emotions to facilitate thought• Use emotional data to match task to energy
• Examine how you judge things.
What are thoughts & what are feelings?
• Be “tuned in” to your senses.
What are your feelings now and then?
• Understand your patterns of behavior.
What are your normal reactions?
Being Aware
If we do not know ourselves and how we are feeling,
how could we ever possibly be able to understand
someone else?
14
What is your self-talk?
• I’m always __________
• My peers always __________
• Everyone __________
• Everything I do __________
• I never __________
• I can ---------------
15
When you become anxious or angry or worried about doing something ask yourself the following questions
• Where is the evidence for the way I am thinking?
• What is the logic in my interpretation?
• What do I have to lose if I do/say this?
• What do I have to gain/if I do/say this?
• What would be the best/worst that could happen if I do/don’t say or do this?
• What can I learn from saying/doing this?
• Be calm and recall a positive, fun feeling that you have had and re-experience it.
• Ask your heart, What’s a more effective response to this stressful situation?
16
17
18
19
Self Management and managing Our Emotions
• Controlling unproductive behaviors that does not get us anywhere.
• Winning an argument with a difficult colleague is only a short-term and transitory gain.
• In addition, raising your blood pressure is not good for your health in the long term.
• Instead, try to understand the link between your interpretation of an event and your responses to it. You can choose an alternative way to feel.
• This is the key to EI capability.
20
Self-Management
• Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions & impulses under control
• Transparency: Displaying honesty & integrity; trustworthiness
• Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing situations or obstacles
• Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence
• Initiative: Readiness to act & seize opportunities
• Optimism: seeing the upside in the events
21
22
26
Social-Awareness
• Empathy: Sensing others’ emotions, understanding their perspective, & taking active interest in their concerns
• Organizational awareness: Reading the decision networks, & politics at the organizational level
• Service: Recognizing & meeting follower, client, or customer needs
29
Relationship Management
“The ways that people treat us are reflections
of the ways we treat ourselves”,
Linda Field, The Self-Esteem Workbook
Relationship management = effective at managing relationships and building effective networks
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
InterestEnthusiasmExcitementInquiryDiscoveryRisk taking and funand, finally, EMOTIONAL BONDS
What we need to add to our classrooms hence are ……
• Personal, psychological and philosophical choices of the teacher usually get entangled with the social, institutional and political dimensions of education.
• Emotional intelligence according to Daniel Goleman (1995) is a personal choice.
Strategies to Tackle Classroom Emotional Problems• Self awareness- Understand your strengths and weaknesses.
– Prepare and structure your class delivery.
• Self management- Be on time for classes.– Be fair- use very strict guidelines in assessments so that the students
realize why they are getting low or high scores.
• Social skills, empathy and self regulation- Plan surprises and rediscovery.– Keep evidence of classroom activities.– Understand the needs of the students- personal and academic.
• Build relations- Develop a relationship with your students, Emphasize competencies like sincere hard work, leadership and other co-curricular activities.
• Never delay in setting ground rules for the classroom and acting on them.
• Never use “you” while involved in a class room deviant behavior.
• Never enter into an open argument.
• Never go with a negative attitude.
• Never allow your students to overpower you.
Self Regulation
• Humor helps at times.• Build customized
classroom exercises: having student activities is important
• You be in teams and list emotionally stressful classroom situations.
• Write down your strategies in managing classroom stress.
• Have some small practical games in the classroom to build relations.
• Provide extra sessions in grooming appropriate behaviors in students.
• Show them videos.
Far from interfering with rationality, the absence of Far from interfering with rationality, the absence of emotion and feeling can breakdown rationality and emotion and feeling can breakdown rationality and
make wise decision making almost impossible. make wise decision making almost impossible.
Antonio Damasio, NeuroscientistAntonio Damasio, Neuroscientist
