Fascinating issue. I have no suggestions/commnts as yet but wait with baited breath.

OK I'll weigh in. I try every day in class to help students reflect on the impact of a situation on them and/or others. I have also been deeply involved in managing a new behaviour management system at the school which is prefaced on 2 key ideas.

1. Clear understanding of expected contextual behaviour and

2. Improved understanding if self.

In my role I also deal regularly with those students who can't manage to fit in and in doing so iaim to develop their emotional intellignce the only way I know, ie reflecting and talking to clarify possible emotional consequences of actions on all parties involved.

Thanks, Mark. I'd like to hear more about the BM your are implementing? I am looking at the development of emotional intelligence as beneficial to the individual, also as recent research has suggested, improving academic results.

The BM program is based on a program called School Wide Positive Behaviour Support but we have modified it to also try to control the emotional environment. So the key facet is clear and explicit description of positive behaviour in each context so kids know what to do. However we have been very diligent in controllng language use by teachers, working on teachers emotional intelligence and maintaining a clear focus on relationships. We have explicitly described key features of a successful professional relationship, reduced the use of language that implies power relationships or punishment and helped teachers reframe their emotional responses to difficult situations. We also ensured a careful balance between professional responsibility for maintaining a quality relationship wth each teacher's students and support when it doesn't work on the basis that for teachers to put themselves on the line emotionally, they need to feel safe when something doesn't work.

So far the results have been excellent over 3 years. There is much less angst in the school with teachers or students. It has not worked for every student and some teachers cannot get their heads around the apparent loss of power but in general, the changed climate works. Initially I described the process as reducing systemic agression. In turn this reduced the need for students to fight back. The reduction in agressive behaviour of all kinds means we can focus more directly on learning.

Mark, thanks so much for your input. Can you give any examples for the controlling of language use by teachers and working on teachers emotional intelligence? I may be able to apply this to student self narrative.

I can but to include much detail it will take a few days to organise the info. Will organise and upload as soon as possible. If you just want a few simple examples, it is things like:

Don't say 'you'll get a detention' say 'we'll need to have a discussion'

Not 'do as you're supposed to' but 'do what makes the class run better'

Not 'behave better' but 'figure out how to work together'

I contibute to this aspect by reframing and discussion. I also scrutinise internal communications and memos to ensure consstency and describe preferred language in regular communications. One of the things I spend time on is explaining the purpose of langage control in terms of cultural theory. I also train teachers in body language to reinforce the language. There is not too much opposition, but some. Some teachers just do not accept the different way of seeing the relationship with kids and in that case we insist on a bottom line compliance and keep working on understanding. One thing we spend time on is honesty. We train teachers in ways to truly see students and their relationship with them appropriately so that their languge and non verbals match

Brilliant, Mark. I particularly like the honesty perspective. How do you go about getting teachers to 'truly' see students? This element is key, I believe. So many judgements are based on generalisations and bias.

Another language thing. We.encourage focus on individuals so that students remain real. Whenever a teacher talks about how their class or students are good we reframe to 'each student'. Noone is allowed to talk about their 'students' results' but 'each student's results'. This requires constant personal interacion by a select group and takes time, as in years, to truly get th ideas across. And as I said some people never get it. One thing we have done is make some degree of personal background of difficult students known so that teachers empathise and then use that to extrapolate to other students because we 'don't know what their life is like outside school'. Teaching about functional behaviour helps too.

Brilliant. Thanks so much

Dear All, sharing my opinion. Since emotional skills are acquired ones, not innate, such skills need to be developed in youths through the emotional literacy training. According to Goleman ('Working with Emotional Intelligence',1998, p.286), emotional competence can be learned at any point in life. No matter how sensitive, shy, hot-tempered, awkward, or tuned-out people may be, with motivation and the right effort they can cultivate emotional competence.The emotional literacy training is to be provided through the practice of specific transactional exercises using a technique called “Strokes” and learning about “Ego States”—the two concepts developed by Eric Berne (1961) in his Transactional Analysis.

Excellent, Suresh. Thanks for the answer

There is a popular paper on fostering EI in the US schools that could be of some help: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/can-emotional-intelligence-be-taught.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

Hi Emel - I'm looking at emotion management, in particular. Specifically, interest in fostering the ability to re author narrative in adolescence.

Artur - thanks for your suggestion here. I am familiar with the RULER program devised at Yale.

Emel, very interesting concept - psychodrama. Did you find the time it takes per session, limiting at all? Or did you have shorter sessions with adolescents?

Ok. Thanks for that. It is a very interesting perspective that I shall explore. Thanks again for your excellent input.

Hello,

I am a high school teacher working predominantly with Year 9 students so I am answering this from a very practical teacher point of view. At my school we recognise that fostering emotional intelligence is really important for adolescents, especially when they are experimenting with different identities and relationships. We have been using a great gender-based programme called "The Rite Journey" which has been an amazing tool for working with students in this area. We run small, gender-based classes of approximately 15-18 students. Being female, I have only worked with girls and in our groups we have covered a range of issues relating to emotional intelligence such as friendships, self-talk, self-concept, body image, relationships with adults (parents/teachers etc.), intimate relationships etc. Have a look at www.theritejourney.com.au

Hi Rebecca. Thanks so much for your information. It is excellent.