What is Emotional Education?

Table of Contents

Last Updated on January 2, 2023 by Mike Robinson

The emotional education and s an educational, ongoing process, which aims to promote the emotional development as an essential complement of cognitive development, constituting both the two essential elements of the development of the personality integral.

On the other hand, Fernández (2016) characterizes it as “… emotional education is, precisely, leading us towards that personal and social well-being that we seek”.

Throughout history, education has corresponded to the family, as a fundamental pillar. While the transfer of knowledge has fallen mainly to the school as a substantial means and source of purely formal knowledge.

However, nowadays, teaching has changed radically, inclining mainly towards a training that is not only academic but also social, since the importance of relations with the students’ closest environment (encompassing here the family, friends and colleagues, among others).

Emotional Education

All this involves looking away from the excellent and impeccable academic records to put the spotlight on the effectiveness of the relationships established by the person with his surroundings.

It is about observing the feeling of happiness of human beings, that feeling of happiness considered as utopia since previous decades.

To answer and locate the feeling of happiness, which we have indicated previously, we must inquire about what we need to achieve it.

If we observe the necessary elements posed by the recipe for happiness, we can find some factors that have some weakness and / or several strengths of these elements, which are considered necessary to achieve it.

These elements are shaped by emotional self-awareness, the regulation of emotions, emotional autonomy and social skills.

With the acquisition of these we can get to find the expected result, happiness (Fernández, 2016).

Happiness is not a gift that suddenly falls from the sky. Happiness is something that is built, day by day, this construction being the responsibility of each and every one of us. Communication is among the best tools that the human being was endowed with (Muñiz, 2016).

Why is emotional education important in childhood?

Achieving that emotional education is a lasting learning over time and that these skills develop in students implies a lifelong learning.

Therefore, it is essential to begin as soon as possible to promote the learning of emotional education as an essential content in the school curriculum.

The rapid learning capacity observed in childhood is a sign that it is beneficial to contribute this content to students at an early age.

That is to say, the sooner we start the learning process, the faster it will take place and the excellent results will be obtained, which will be used throughout the life course of the students.

For all these reasons, the idea that teaching is, without a doubt, for both parents and teachers, a vocational and moving activity, which requires great effort and dedication to solve it, can not go unnoticed.

However, the teacher’s training continues in the same guidelines as for many decades, where the merely conceptual intelligence was in force and had an unattainable position for other achievements.

Many parents and teachers consider that they are not prepared and, therefore, do not assimilate the possibility of making a change in the teaching styles of the 21st century.

That is why Fernández (2016) opts for more training in terms of social and emotional competences, since the teacher should be the model to be followed by all his students, from their own inter- and intrapersonal relationships, to thus being able to establish and manage objectives at an emotional, social and academic level

Useful strategies for the practice of emotional education

As we have mentioned before, the Family and the School are two fundamental pillars that go hand in hand in any educational execution.

That is why we must keep in mind the great teaching media that, today, provides the knowledge society, through the Information and Communication Technologies, the media, social groups, among others. that make up the communicative network to which society is continually exposed (Gutiérrez, 2003 in Serrano, 2016).

Then we will expose a number of aspects with which the teacher can work both with students and with the family, using any means that requires it (Fernández, 2016).

Thus, it is necessary to give a balance in the learning, so that the students reach the state of well-being that we indicated at the beginning, which must contribute both the school and the family from the practice and training of this, starting of verbal, nonverbal and paraverbal communication (Fernández, 2016).

1. Emotional Education in Students

First, we note that the teacher needs to master the social skills and emotional q ue has to convey to students without giving room for improvisation. The teacher must be a social-emotional model and a learning propeller.

As a Socio-Emotional Model, we must point out that it is the mirror where the student observes himself, from where he obtains the closest emotional examples that will later leave a mark on his development.

And as a propellant of learning is the one that perceives the expressed needs, the individual motivations, the own / group interests and the objectives of each of its students.

In addition, it helps to establish the goals that each child should propose; it is the ideal figure to expedite the opportune choice in the process of decision making, it affects personal orientation (Fernández, 2016).

Therefore, it establishes a positive emotional climate giving support to increase students’ self- esteem and self-confidence (Fernández, 2016).

Therefore, according to Albendea, Bermúdez and Pérez (2016), it should be noted that an excellent emotional education provides the child with numerous benefits in their own socio-emotional development such as:

High levels of self-esteem
Ability to detect your own emotions.
Identify ideas and express feelings.
Competence to defend their rights and their social relations.
Ability to assimilate negative situations as a learning.
Emotional self – regulation strategies

Likewise, prevention is obtained in the consumption of substances such as drugs, it facilitates a good atmosphere of coexistence, has a suitable relationship between peers and their teachers, in addition to having a minimum percentage of violence and depression.

Taking into account the literature exposed, we must point out several strategies to work on students’ emotional self-regulation (Fernández, 2016):

Role-Playing

Assume negative emotions as natural and in turn favor positive internal messages, such as “I’m going to have to work hard, but I’m going to get it”, “I’m not going to raise my voice”, “I’m going to relax before talking” , etc.
Adopt a positive point of view of the situations, identifying the negative factors and looking for the way to turn them into positive and fruitful.
Eliminate any negative emotional response as reactions to problems, at first. It is about looking for the positive side and waiting until generating a timely response, without giving emotionally negative and altered responses.
Normalize assertive responses in everyday life, using the correct use of verbal and non-verbal communication.
In addition to knowing that negative emotions are not bad and are necessary to have them. They must accept that it is beneficial to externalize them. For this it is appropriate to recommend physical exercise as a liberator of accumulated tensions.
Have the support of peers to externalize these emotions. Support is needed in certain situations to externalize the problems and that these are extracted and do not remain inside.

Relaxation Techniques

In this way, emotional education can also be encouraged. To carry it out it is appropriate that there is a rest at the muscular and sensory level.

Using relaxed music, such as the use of ocean waves, and performing relaxation in a logical order of the body.

2. Emotional Education in Families

In all affective relationships there must be an emotional balance, be it school or family, and in most cases there is no awareness of it.

Verbal manifestations are constantly made with high emotional connotation, transmitting an affective message that the child perceives, interprets and experiences a certain state of mind.

For this reason, we must bear in mind that in terms of the family environment, affective bonds are particularly relevant in the practice of communication skills.

Communicating effectively as a family increases the emotional intelligence favorably, without going to great extremes, since a broad involvement will lead to great emotional exhaustion and a minimization would imply the depersonalization of the individual, losing much of the value and human quality of the person (Fernández, 2016).

Taking into account all the arguments we must emphasize that teacher-family relationships are more scarce than those of the student with his classmates and with the school itself, it is important to have family participation and, therefore, it does not stop the treatment of the center with this context so close to the students is relevant.

These relationships can lead to problematic situations, sometimes when there is no reciprocity between the teacher’s work and that of the family, without showing collaboration for the task that the professional is performing.

Without a rapport and an understanding between both parties you can not expect great results.

Therefore, we must bear in mind some indications that teachers should use to bring their work closer to families and, in this way, speed up the teaching-learning process of emotional intelligence. (Fernández, 2016):

Analyze the family context that surrounds / develops the student . Where do you live? What is your socioeconomic status?
Knowing the attachment bond of the student with the family . Are you involved in your family? Do you do your day to day without sharing family moments? Do you have the same treatment with all members of the family?
Establish a common and priority objective between the teacher and the parents of the student . Do parents consider emotional education necessary? Is there a common interest between the family and me as a teacher?
Encourage collaboration between the family and the school, based on the objective set by both parties . Could they participate in activities where the presence of the family is required? Can you propose ideas to carry out the collaboration between the two?
Reciprocity of information . Maintain a constant exchange of information between both parties, where the teacher must make reports where the reciprocity of information is perceived, the student’s learning and the goals achieved by the child are @nalyzed.
Show serenity in the face of problems and situations that may arise. The possibility of establishing a climate of trust will lead to greater harmony and a climate of work and collaboration between both parties. It is about teaching emotional intelligence, so take the situation with calm and serenity to move calm and create bonds of trust.
Give assertive answers to the questions raised.
Express appreciation for the work done and thank the collaboration provided.