The presentation by LATA DAYARAM at EDU-CARNIVAL 2014 - the 6th International conference for school leaders, IIT DELHI.

1. Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Teacher
Dr Lata Dyaram , IIT Madras

2. • IQ is about 24 points higher now than in 1918- due to better nutrition,
more school, smaller family size etc. However, EQ is down compared to
the last generation. Kids now are more lonely and depressed, more angry
and unruly, more nervous and prone to worry, more impulsive and more
aggressive. Now, there are rising rates of despair, alienation, drugs,
juvenile crime and violence, eating disorders, unwanted pregnancies,
bullying and dropping out of school. (Daniel Goleman 2007)
• Leadership and academic leadership is largely an emotional intelligence.
Some estimates put it as high as 90%. Leadership encompasses
influence, achievement drive, self confidence, team skills and political
awareness. Failed leaders were too critical, moody, angry, defensive and
lacked empathy.

3. The Changing Teaching Scenario
• Today’s classroom is different.
• Expectations of students and administration
and management are different.
• Emotions are dynamic part of ourselves
whether positive or negative.
• All schools are filled with emotions.

4. Teachers are not just Well-Oiled Machines!!
• A good teacher is charged with more positive
emotions.
• It’s not just the matter of knowing the subject,
using the right tools, having the correct
competencies and right techniques.
• But it is a matter of having the right emotions at
the right time to match the right audience.

5. Like Cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence is difficult to define.
Broadly speaking, EI addresses the emotional, personal, social and survival
dimensions of intelligence which are often more important for daily functioning
than the more traditional cognitive aspects of intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is concerned with understanding oneself and others,
relating to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings
to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands.
Emotional intelligence is tactical (immediate functioning) while cognitive
intelligence is strategic (long term capacity). EI helps to predict success because
it reflects how a person applies knowledge to the immediate situation. In a way,
to measure EI is to measure ones common sense and ability to get along in the
world.

6. Exercise
•Why emotional intelligence is important for
teachers:
– I felt emotional intelligence in me when………..
– I have felt emotional stress when……………………
•How did you feel in both situations. Can anyone
volunteer to share their experiences of positive
and negative classroom situations.

7. • Understanding emotions
IN teaching…….. Like many
kinds of jobs is not just a
technical or cognitive
practice but also an
emotional one. (Norman
Denzin, 1984)
• Caring professions like
teaching not only require
emotional sensitivity but
also emotional labor.
(Hochschild, 1993)
• There is a coordination of
mind and feeling in
teaching.

8. • Teaching is a passionate talent and good
teachers are passionate about their ideas,
learning and their relations with students.

9. Many of us are good in self
management, getting up early,
being self-driven, etc.
But a teacher is a leader. You
need to work with groups of
children or adults through
influencing, developing,
inspiring, motivating --- that’s
social intelligence.
The teaching is all about
relationships. Students need
understanding, and compassion
– empathy.

10. • When we start questioning how our behavior affects
others, then that’s the point we start improving our
performance.
• Other people affect us positively or negatively. But
our brains are designed to have social relationships.
• All our decisions come from wisdom of emotions
which is from the base of the limbic system.
• Part of decisions is the ability to respond to those
gut feelings of ours.

11. 11
Self-Awareness
• Awareness of our own emotional states is the foundation of all EI skills
• Learning to ‘tune in’ to emotions – they give valid information about
your responses to stressful situations
• Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one’s strengths & weaknesses
• Self-confidence: A sound sense of one’s self-worth & capabilities
• verbal and non verbal cues, tone of voice
• Accept responsibility for your own emotional responses
• Be aware of and manage your own emotional triggers
• Use emotions to facilitate thought
• Use emotional data to match task to energy

12. • Examine how you judge things.
What are thoughts & what are feelings?
• Be “tuned in” to your senses.
What are your feelings now and then?
• Understand your patterns of behavior.
What are your normal reactions?
Being Aware

13. If we do not know ourselves
and how we are feeling,
how could we ever possibly
be able to understand
someone else?

14. 14
What is your self-talk?
• I’m always __________
• My peers always __________
• Everyone __________
• Everything I do __________
• I never __________
• I can ---------------

15. 15
When you become anxious or angry or worried about doing something
ask yourself the following questions
• Where is the evidence for
the way I am thinking?
• What is the logic in my
interpretation?
• What do I have to lose if I
do/say this?
• What do I have to gain/if I
do/say this?
• What would be the best/worst
that could happen if I do/don’t
say or do this?
• What can I learn from
saying/doing this?
• Be calm and recall a positive,
fun feeling that you have had
and re-experience it.
• Ask your heart, What’s a more
effective response to this
stressful situation?

16. 16

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19. 19
Self Management and managing
Our Emotions
• Controlling unproductive behaviors that
does not get us anywhere.
• Winning an argument with a difficult
colleague is only a short-term and
transitory gain.
• In addition, raising your blood pressure is
not good for your health in the long term.
• Instead, try to understand the link
between your interpretation of an event
and your responses to it. You can choose
an alternative way to feel.
• This is the key to EI capability.

20. 20
Self-Management
• Emotional self-control: Keeping
disruptive emotions & impulses under
control
• Transparency: Displaying honesty &
integrity; trustworthiness
• Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to
changing situations or obstacles
• Achievement: The drive to improve
performance to meet inner standards
of excellence
• Initiative: Readiness to act & seize
opportunities
• Optimism: seeing the upside in the
events

21. 21

22. 22

26. 26
Social-Awareness
• Empathy: Sensing others’
emotions, understanding their
perspective, & taking active
interest in their concerns
• Organizational awareness:
Reading the decision networks,
& politics at the organizational
level
• Service: Recognizing & meeting
follower, client, or customer
needs

29. 29
Relationship Management
“The ways that people
treat us are reflections
of the ways we treat
ourselves”,
Linda Field, The Self-
Esteem Workbook
Relationship management = effective at managing relationships
and building effective networks

30. 30

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35. 35

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39. 39

43. Interest
Enthusiasm
Excitement
Inquiry
Discovery
Risk taking and fun
and, finally,
EMOTIONAL BONDS
What we need to add to our classrooms hence are
……

44. • Personal, psychological and philosophical
choices of the teacher usually get entangled
with the social, institutional and political
dimensions of education.
• Emotional intelligence according to Daniel
Goleman (1995) is a personal choice.

46. Strategies to Tackle Classroom Emotional Problems
• Self awareness- Understand your strengths and weaknesses.
– Prepare and structure your class delivery.
• Self management- Be on time for classes.
– Be fair- use very strict guidelines in assessments so that the students
realize why they are getting low or high scores.
• Social skills, empathy and self regulation- Plan surprises and
rediscovery.
– Keep evidence of classroom activities.
– Understand the needs of the students- personal and academic.
• Build relations- Develop a relationship with your students,
Emphasize competencies like sincere hard work, leadership and
other co-curricular activities.

47. • Never delay in setting ground rules for
the classroom and acting on them.
• Never use “you” while involved in a
class room deviant behavior.
• Never enter into an open argument.
• Never go with a negative attitude.
• Never allow your students to
overpower you.
Self Regulation

48. • Humor helps at times.
• Build customized
classroom exercises:
having student activities
is important
• You be in teams and list
emotionally stressful
classroom situations.
• Write down your
strategies in managing
classroom stress.
• Have some small practical games
in the classroom to build relations.
• Provide extra sessions in
grooming appropriate behaviors in
students.
• Show them videos.

51. Far from interfering with rationality, the absence ofFar from interfering with rationality, the absence of
emotion and feeling can breakdown rationality andemotion and feeling can breakdown rationality and
make wise decision making almost impossible.make wise decision making almost impossible.
Antonio Damasio, NeuroscientistAntonio Damasio, Neuroscientist

52. Dr. Lata Dyaram
Assistant professor,
Dept of Management Studies,
IIT Madras
lata.dyaram@iitm.ac.in