Report on an Emotional Intelligence project- John Graves & Vivien Louizos-Esher College • In response to calls for research projects at our 6 th Form college, we submitted a proposal on ‘Using EI to improve motivation and educational performance.’ • Our proposal was accepted, with the condition that we would consequentially provide a set of proposals for a programme that could be incorporated into current institution/class procedures, and not a dedicated EI programme. Initially, this seemed very constricting!
Transcript
Report on an Emotional Intelligence project-John Graves & Vivien Louizos-Esher College
• In response to calls for research projects
at our 6th Form college, we submitted a
proposal on ‘Using EI to improve motivation and educational performance.’
• Our proposal was accepted, with the condition that we would consequentially provide a set of proposals for a programme that could be incorporated into current institution/class procedures, and not a dedicated EI programme. Initially, this seemed very constricting!
EI Project
• Procedure:
1. A Literature review was undertaken
2. Interviews conducted with staff in our own college, and those from our sister colleges in S7 consortium.
3. Interviews conducted with students in our college.
5. Set of recommendations produced – outline of a pragmatic programme for integrating EI strategies at various points in the student experience.
EI Project
• Findings:
• We started from a position of sympathy for and belief in the claims of benefits arising from EI programmes.
• The more we reviewed the literature, the more dubious the claims appeared to be!
EI Project
• Key Problematic Areas:
1. Problems in defining and measuring EI:
- Many researchers have come to dispute that there is any way in which a valid measure of EI can be produced that represents any advance on enumerating/delineating a set of traits or personality characteristics traditionally and conveniently encompassed within established personality-oriented approaches.
EI Project
2. EI is not a good predictor of academic performance, or exam success!
3. The scope for intrusion of personal agendas and favoured pedagogic ideologies is great! EI programmes can all too easily become vehicles for polemical egalitarian beliefs, or anti-elitist intellectual sentiments.
EI Project
• Having arrived at this point, it seemed that any prospects of producing a set of evidence-based proposals for implementing efficacious EI strategies was fatally compromised!
• Coincidentally, themes emerging from the content analysis of our qualitative research were pointing in another (seemingly prosaic) direction:
Review of the research, and interview results pointed to a well articulated (and supported) conclusion:
For students to succeed academically, they need to possess, or develop (key issue!) what we would characterise as a
‘Mindset for Success’, built on 5 key principles:
5 key principles for success (from Patrick Jordan)
1. Take responsibility
2. Set goals
3. Be positive
4. Persevere intelligently
5. Connect with others
EI Project
• Of course, all the above reflect what could be deemed emotionally intelligent attitudes or characteristics, but they hardly require the articulation or construction of a new theoretical concept or perspective!
• And, in our interviews we discovered:
1. Most of our successful students came to us
already possessing something like our
‘Mindset for Success’.
2) There were some (few) cases where students were
‘turned around’ and developed the appropriate mindset..
Themes emerging from student interviews:Essentials for success:
1) Having a goal/future orientation-breaking the goal into manageable/realistic steps- (this was every respondent’s number one point including those who had been unsuccessful; those who had “turned themselves round” and the highly successful ones)2) Using supports-including teacher feedback3) Taking opportunities for learning (students taking responsibility)4) Challenging & avoiding negative influences/ association with positive peer groups
Essentials to prevent failure:
Try to control:ImpulsivityAvoidanceDistraction
The key emergent themes were categorised into three “stages” of the mindset for success:Goal setting; goal- commitment and goal attainmentwith a role for both the teacher and the student, though it maximises the students’ responsibility and therefore motivation. Each stage happens to correspond with one or more of Jordan’s principles.
There are proformas to use at each stage to record and monitor progress.
EI Project
• We were charged with the task of recommending a programme that could be integrated with current college practice.
• We suggested a series of strategies to encourage students in adopting the emergent 3 key aims:
1. Goal-setting
2. Goal commitment
3. Goal attainment
Recommendations for integrating EI into the general curriculum:
•Step 1: goal setting-Develop a goal hierarchy, starting with a personal macro goal involving a future orientation which may include career/higher education plans. Consideration of these possibilities would lead to intermediate/instrumental goalsinvolving individual subjects and realistic grade ambitions. Rational choices about the investment and distribution of effort can be made at this point and revisited as appropriate. Finally students set themselves a set of micro goals for each lesson. These would address but may exceed, the teacher’s expressed aims and objectives. It is envisaged that they would involve opportunities for learning and encourage students to take maximum advantage of what teachers provide. (An emotionally intelligent student will strive to obtain some value from any input regardless of the quality of the delivery or the resources)
Macro and intermediate goals are self evident
Example of micro goals:
What can I achieve this lesson?remain focussed; understand the basics; understand where this lesson fits into the scheme of work, specification and exam requirements; what additional work can be undertaken independently; bring openness to experience; a new angle to stimulate thoughts ; enable understanding to grow and deepen. After every lesson the student could be encouraged to note 3 things they learned etc.
The success of this enterprise depends on it being perceived as realistic and attainable by the individual student. Therefore it is recommended that individual differences and ambitions are translated into graduated targets. The starting point would be a minimal level of expectations to be met as a requirement for basic success and as a safety net to avoid being unsuccessful.
•Step 2-Goal commitmentIn the interests of motivation, we suggest a bottom up model for this stage, on the principle that “every little helps”. There is a clear role for the teacher at this stage, to engage students’ interests and therefore increase motivation.The negotiation of a group contract for each set can be useful here. This models adult education practice as students take responsibility for and ownership of, their learning. It also helps classroom management and creates an ethos conducive to learning.Goal commitment can be monitored and reinforced at various opportunities e.g: profiling; Independent Learning Plans.
•Step 3-Goal attainment-
This would be the culmination of building a virtuous cycle of emotionally intelligent behaviours through the other stages. Students need to recognise and replace self defeatingbehaviours with those likely to elicit success
Mininum requirements for success:
Attend regularlyFocus in classSubmit assignments on time to the best of one’s abilityUtilise supports
Some students would begin here and aim to successively raise their level of expectation and achievement; others would already have a higher starting point.
Given the simplicity of these fundamentals, it is surprising that not all students meet these basic standards.
Psychological theory would predict this was due to a combination of:1. Faulty cognitions and attributions e.g external locus of control; false assumption that success is based on ability rather than effort and conscientiousness (Claxton ) evidenced by parents’ and students’ experience of GCSE success with minimal effort and shock at realisation of skills and effort gap between GCSE and “A” level
2. Faulty behavioural shaping (e.g “squeaky wheel” syndrome) and failure or lack of reinforcements/structures of deterrents and incentives
3. Faulty perceptions of own and teachers’ role. Emotionally intelligent students see their teacher not as an adversary but as an advocate and a support guide .These issues could be addressed in an Induction programme.No. 2 would require the establishment of an appropriate institutional culture.
EI Project
• Some examples of pro-formas that could be employed:
• As a postscript, we have had this incorporated into our college-wide PD programme.
“Effective communication, treating learners with dignity and respect and modelling appropriate behaviour can create a climate that fosters learner and teacher self esteem, initiative, motivation, satisfaction in teaching and learning and overall academic performance levels” (Coetzee and Jansen 2002-EI in the classroom)
