Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can be defined as a set of skills hypothesized to contribute to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the effective regulation of emotion in self and others, and the use of feelings to motivate, plan, and achieve in one's life. (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Originally conceptualised as a set of capacities for managing emotions, mainly due to the work of Daniel Goleman (Goleman, 1996), Emotional Intelligence has become associated with life success skills. I am very proud to say the majority of emotions encountered on TP have been positive, liberating and satisfactory. The adaption of Brookfield four lens theory (Brookfield, 1995) has highlighted a number of positives in my personal development as an educator. One thing that extruded through by collection of notes is I always adapted my methodology if I felt it wasnt working and I noticed that naturally my emotions turned negativity into a positive learning outcome, not just for the class but for me. I was able to identify, not faults in the students, but faults in my approach as I wasnt fully aware of the emotion of the class being taught. After my second TP inspection, it was brought to my attention that perhaps I should approach the older cohort of students as if I was teaching my peers in college. This input allowed me to feel a sense of reassurance as I felt the resources I was using were of good quality and allows for pupil interaction and cooperative learning. I have also begun to adapt to different learning abilities by use of a confidential personal numbering system which categorises students ability into a 1, 2, 3 format. I feel this will enhance the opportunity for positivity in regard to the students emotion. An aim that I stated very early on in TP was to generate a strong working relationship and I feel that this has been established. An example of one experience I have encountered on TP is with one particular student who is branded as extremely troublesome. I was informed of this students behaviour before I began teaching his class. An "important aspect of Emotional Intelligence is the capacity to use one's emotions, whether they are anger, joy, empathy, or frustration, in a way that is productive and positive" (Caldwell & Gravett, 2009, p. 52). I adapted to this first by controlling my emotions, I did not become prejudges and I aimed to transform this students negativity and Sinicism into positivity. As I corrected the first drawings of this student, I gave an extra 10 marks to what was a good effort. Through this positive reinforcement I feel this provided an interest as well as confidence for him in the TG class. I have continued to work with a positive attitude but also aware of the fact that over praise is patronising. This is something I noticed while carrying out observations on DCG with a cooperation teacher I noticed a similar experience on how his presence in the class reflected on to the students work ethic.

Bibliography
Brookfield, S. D., 1995. Becoming A Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Josseybass. Caldwell, S. & Gravett, L., 2009. Using Your Emotional Intelligence to Develop Others. Hampshire: Plagrave Macmillan.

Goleman, D., 1996. Emotional Intelligence. London, New York, New Delhi, Sydney : Bloomsbury Publications. Goleman, D., 2013. Focus The Hidden Drive Of Excellence. London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney: Bloomsbury Publishing. Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. D., 1990. Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), pp. 185-211.