The Future of Education

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as reacting accordingly to the emotions of others. Though there is some disagreement among psychologists as to what constitutes true emotional intelligence, it is generally said to include at least three skills: emotional awareness, or the ability to identify and name one’s own emotions; the ability to harness those emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving; and the ability to manage emotions, which includes both regulating own emotions and those of the ones we are interacting with. More and more people accept that emotional intelligence is just as important to professional success as technical ability.
The concept of “Emotional Intelligence” has become a popular term to establish the potential ability of students or individuals in general to determine certain markers of success in academic and professional life. However understanding the determinants of academic performance has never been easy. Most studies focus on the impact of one or the other , but very rarely has a comparative study on the impact of both of them combined been carried out. Traditionally, Higher Education has focused on IQ (Intelligence Quotient) overshadowing the development of IE (Emotional Intelligence), as a result university undergraduates, and professionals have underdeveloped adaptable skills (transversal skills) when working in teams. The limitations to the instruments to measure  Emotional Intelligence and the still loose definition of the concept is seen by some as a deterrent to identify IE as a predictor of success. The article argues whether  Cognitive Intelligence  anticipates sufficiently an individual’s success on its own, or the individual would need to develop adaptation skills to become a truly “Intelligent Individual” , and therefore the need of  higher education to  introduce a curriculum for emotional intelligence.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence, intelligence quotient, higher education, internationalisation, academic performance, professional performance, curriculum development.

References:
[1] Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam.
[2] Huisman, J., Kiviaho-Kallio, P, Lyon, D. (2019) Enhancing Employability through Experiential Learning and Reflective Learning. Florence: The Future of Education Proceedings