MANAGING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE THROUGH EMOTIONAL EDUCATION
MANAGING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE THROUGH EMOTIONAL EDUCATION

Summary/Abstract: Emotions play an important role in human life, especially in the life of adolescents. In today’s digital age, emotional intelligence (EI) has become a very important social-emotional skill in society in general, but also in the educational context because it is actually a mechanism of social adaptation. People can be taught to recognize emotions, to manage them and to react in emotionally demanding situations. Whether individuals possess this ability can be seen through how they listen to others, how they express emotions, react to criticism or solve problems. Since EI is considered a skill, it is developed through: training, coaching, psychological workshops and educational programs. In the following text of the paper, the authors will explain the implementation of the exercise program for EI training in high school and three types of exercises, which consist of: introduction to emotions, recognition and management of emotions, and recognition and management of other people’s feelings. Exercise number 1 includes an introduction to emotions where the students described themselves, i.e. listed the characteristics that characterize them: the largest number of students, 15 of them, do not like to study, 10 students described themselves as lazy, 9 students are too talkative, but 25 of them would like to be good students like their friends. It was shown that they recognize their emotional states and behaviors, but do not understand the causes and ways to overcome them. They lack internal motivation and need help in developing self-confidence. In exercise number 2, recognizing and managing emotions, students talked about fears, habits and reactions. The results showed that everyone is afraid of answering in front of the board, of drawing blood from the finger. All of these include primary fears. Then, that they have a loving nature and that they are hardly motivated to study and do any kind of work. That is why there is a large number of absences from classes and bad grades in certain subjects. They avoid reacting because they don’t manage their emotions effectively enough. This indicates emotional immaturity and vulnerability and the existence of a need for security. Exercise number 3, recognizing and understanding other people’s feelings, students report that they have poor grades in mathematics, that they never received praise from their parents, that they did not try to earn money on their own, and that they received praise for their work in class from class teachers and practical teachers. The exercise showed that empathy and understanding of emotional needs can be developed primarily through one’s own experience and comparing it with someone else’s. The support of adults is very important to them. The exercises revealed that emotions have an extremely important and multifaceted role in the life of adolescents, because they help them to: understand themselves, build identity and social relationships, make decisions without impulsive reactions and develop empathy. Emotion management, like any management process, can be learned and practiced through given examples, and training that would include a number of other exercises could be used in all high schools, as well as elementary schools. The conclusion is that emotional education is necessary in order for current and future generations to be better and more successful as students and as leaders.

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