Page 21 - PLATINO EDUCA

How to teach emotional intelligence effectively 21

Once we have understood the importance of our students developing emotional
intelligence, the question becomes how to do it effectively.

The first step in improving our teaching practices or updating methodologies is self-
evaluation. We need to change the focus from our students to ourselves. How are
my emotional skills? How do I resolve conflicts? Do I take conflicts with my students
personally? Do I talk to them about how I am doing or how satisfying it is to teach them?

Personal improvement in social skills transforms teachers into effective leaders, so we
should start to take care of our teachers and train them so that they grow and evolve
not only in their methodology, but also on a personal level.

When teachers improve their emotional intelligence, they will be better able to help
their students gain insight into their emotions and understand, regulate, and manage
them to resolve conflicts.

There are countless activities for this that all have a common denominator: they incite
approaching emotion in young people. Tools such as role-playing games, storytelling
or case methods can be very useful.

However, undoubtedly one of the most effective ways in the classroom to identify and
empathize with the emotions of others is by watching movies.

Cinema and emotions

“The power of cinema is so great that we not only empathize with the experiences of
other human beings, but even with those of animals”

Vittorio Gallese

Telling stories through moving images and incorporating sounds and dialogues not
only allows us to get involved in the story, but also live it in the first person, changing
our ideas and concepts of the world.

When we watch a movie, a seemingly calm activity, a very complex set of cognitive and
neural processes are activated in our body - specifically in our brain.

When we start watching a movie our senses are activated. We detect an infinity of
audiovisual stimuli that convert into electrical impulses that connect areas of our brain,
producing systems and neural networks that allow us to put together information,
relate it to previous knowledge and make predictions on what is going to happen.
If we compare the process that occurs when watching a movie to learning, we can
see that it is the same. So, by relying on cinema to teach, the first part of the teaching-
learning process is covered.