Emotional literacy and health and wellbeing have been placed at the heart of good practice by the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda and the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in England, and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland, and this book provides clear guidance and lots of practical strategies for how to implement this ethos in your setting.
Offering an explanation of emotional literacy, why it matters and how to make it happen in practice, this book looks at ways to promote and develop emotional literacy with young children through:
- Circle Time
- drama
- storytelling
- physical education
- outdoor play
- active learning
It highlights the benefits of this ethos for all, and looks at how the emotionally literate setting supports inclusion and promotes achievement. Full of case studies of children aged 3 to 8, ideas for practice, photographs, points for reflection, photocopiable materials, and accompanied by a wide range of downloadable material available on the SAGE website, this is an indispensable guide for the early years practitioner.
It is highly relevant to those looking at the transition from Early Years to Primary education, as well as the social, emotional and behavioural needs of young children.
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Yes, you can access Emotional Literacy in the Early Years by Christine Bruce in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Pedagogía & Educación infantil. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
What benefits can it bring to a school or setting?
An Introduction to Emotional Literacy
Have you considered the ethos you are aiming for? If the answer is that you want to achieve an enthusiastic and supportive learning community where there is a sense of belonging, where each pupil is valued for their unique contribution, where children have built the confidence, independence and resilience to enjoy challenge, explore creativity and fully engage in rich and deep learning experiences, where children respect each other and have a sense of pride in their achievements, then you could start with considering Emotional Literacy.
To Think About:
What sort of classroom ethos are you trying to achieve?
What sort of class do you want to have?
What is Emotional Literacy?
Emotional Literacy is a way of ‘being’ not just of ‘doing’. It is a pedagogical approach concerning teaching style and learning environment which you can develop with your pupils as a community approach to inclusion. Salovey & Mayer (1990) originally defined it as a type of ‘social intelligence’ which enables people to differentiate between emotions and the resulting actions. The teacher’s role is then to provide a safe but rich and challenging learning environment where children are free to grow socially and emotionally, while academically nurtured. Mia Kellmer Pringle (1986) used Maslow’s well known hierarchy of needs pyramid to develop a simplified theory for the needs of children. Basically, only when a child feels emotionally safe and secure in their environment will they undertake the challenge and risk needed to learn. New learning challenges our self confidence; we need resilience to overcome disappointment or acknowledge our mistakes. Many children are simply not ready to do that and need our support to explore challenge safe from ridicule. Successful deep learning can only take place where recognition and praise is given not only for what is correct but for effort and for solutions found through collaboration. This type of supporting yet challenging environment, where collaboration is encouraged with ‘scaffolding’ to support and extend learning, follows the principles of social constructivism, allowing children to blossom into independent learners through developing self esteem, self control and social skills.
The Context
This book is based in particular on the Emotional Literacy project which I undertook as a nursery class teacher, working at that time towards a postgraduate degree in education. The project followed and documented an extended action research initiative initially with 76 nursery children aged between 3 and 5 years, then subsequently followed 19 of those children aged between 4½ and 5½ years through the transition into their first school year, with myself as their class teacher. Those 19 children were then joined by six other children who had all attended a neighbouring nursery. The six additional children had not had an explicit focus on Emotional Literacy, which allowed for a contrast of data.
In the very beginning during the school annual audit, the staff expressed a concern that there seemed to be a steady decline in the general levels of respect and discipline around the school. It was felt that our attainment targets were affected through poor attitudes being displayed by a growing number of pupils towards the school community, and particularly by many of the older children. This lack of social skills was perceived by the staff as a particular concern despite the existing good use of circle time, positive discipline and reward strategies throughout the school. The feeling was highlighted further in a whole school pre-project baseline survey in which data were collected from children, parents and in-school adults regarding perceptions of in-class and out-of-class behaviours. The result was a whole-school commitment to introduce and develop a programme of Emotional Literacy.
It was hoped that focusing on Emotional Literacy would establish an inclusive feeling of responsibility and belonging between pupils and the school community. Further it was hoped that the issues raised in the audit would be addressed through this initiative while not just maintaining but improving attainment. However, to successfully achieve any pedagogical change, staff need to believe in the worth of an initiative and understand the principles behind it (Fullan, 1991). This requires training; in our case an initial whole-staff training session was followed by professional reading around the subject and then the trial of resources led by a small group of committed staff. Effectively the whole school began to participate in the action research process, which as Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2000: 226) assert is ‘a powerful tool for change and improvement’.
Introducing Emotional Literacy from the earliest stages in the nursery class played a foundational part in the wider whole-school plan. To make progress required not only staff collaboration within the nursery setting but also with the whole-school working group, and dialogue with other professionals, the management team, and vitally, with our parents. The focus within the nursery was supported at that time by the 3–5 curriculum, SCCC (1999), which was first and foremost based on promoting social skills. Writing as an experienced teacher it was my contention that these skills were the foundation of all education, a view which is readily supported in current educational literature and in the new curricula across the United Kingdom.
Where to Start with Emotional Literacy
In the beginning of your project it will be prudent to ensure that all staff involved have a clear and shared perception of your goal. It would also be prudent to have a little background knowledge and a common understanding of what Emotional Literacy is. It is important then to consider how the concept has evolved and the many benefits the approach can bring.
Why Emotional Literacy?
Emotional Literacy (EL) is still a relatively new and growing area in education and is based on the theory of Emotional Intelligence (sometimes referred to as EI or EQ); the ability to process emotional information. This theory is usually considered to have been developed by Salovey & Mayer in 1990, the term ‘Emotional Intelligence’ making the simple link between the affective and the cognitive domains. Today their work is supported through contemporary research (Smith, 2004; Blakemore & Frith, 2005) which tells us that the brain plays a central role in emotional response. We know, for example, that the pre-frontal cortex is involved in social, cognitive and emotional processes such as the regulation of attention, pain, self control, flexibility and self awareness and seems very sensitive to the environment. We also know that our brain makes strong and crucial connections between our senses and our emotions (Damasio, 2003).
Emotional Intelligence is often referred to as Emotional Literacy in educational circles, the term ‘Literacy’ suggesting a practical process or concept which one can be taught ‘to read’. I believe there is an innate element to emotion which through careful nurturing can be developed and refined, and then further skills taught developing into what may be known as Emotional Literacy.
The initial research of Salovey and Mayer has been reframed and internationally popularised during the last 10 years through the works of Daniel Goleman (1996, 1998). Goleman made the case that emotional and social intelligence is more relevant than conventional intelligence in the workplace and for a successful life. Salovey and Mayer saw Emotional Intelligence as being made up of four distinct branches; put very simply these are perception, thought, understanding and management. These could be seen as foundational to the five domains for Emotional Literacy laid out by Goleman (1996). The DCSF Seal Strategy (2005) is based on a similar set of five core aspects: self awareness, managing feelings, empathy, motivation, and social skills, which are considered basic to the development of Emotional Literacy. These key areas are brought together in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 Bringing the key areas of emotional intelligence together
The work of Howard Gardner (1983) on multiple intelligences could be considered to take a parallel view and has had a significant impact on teaching and learning. His theory stresses the breadth of intelligences including interpersonal and intra-personal intelligence which both relate to Emotional Literacy. Interpersonal intelligence relates to taking account of other people and their emotional states and intra-personal intelligence, recognising and managing our own emotions successfully. The idea of Emotional Literacy is therefore nothing new but it demonstrates a growing awareness of the multi-faceted nature of intelligence and the importance of understanding the relevance of this as an approach to learning and teaching.
To Think About:
Who should provide this nurturing?
Is this within the remit of teachers?
Governing bodies recognise the potential implications of disruptive or indeed compliant behaviour masking underlying emotional problems which teachers often feel ill qualified to handle. There is also support in Christie et al. (1999) for the assertion that many children demonstrate a lack of empathy which challenges teacher professionalism. However, successful teachers can and do encourage the development of intra-personal awareness and self esteem. If there is even some small cognitive element to emotion, then, as Sharp (2001) acknowledges, the skills of control and understanding should be nurtured, taught and practised in the form of Emotional Literacy. To be really effective these skills need to be modelled and taught not only by individual teachers but as a whole-school community, including both teaching and non-teaching staff. Weare (2007) believes there is unequivocal evidence to support a whole-school approach to Emotional Literacy.
Figure 1.2 Continuum of Emotional Literacy
The Importance of Establishing a Common Understanding
From the outset I strongly suggest that if you are considering undertaking a project to develop Emotional Literacy then you should create your own shared definition or understanding, through teasing out and exploring existing definitions to consider which aspects you agree with. The key to Emotional Literacy is, as Mathews et al. (2002: 3) establish, the ability not only to recognise emotions in oneself and in others but to have some understanding and even control of these emotions, to ‘assimilate them in thought’. Achieving Emotional Literacy could be considered to be a continuum where initially one must first learn to recognise basic emotions through facial expression and body language, then develop an understanding of what that means before one can handle and express emotions appropriately (see Figure 1.2). The nursery project started through developing an initial recognition which naturally followed along the continuum through simple understanding and appropriate handling and expression of emotion, to active understanding and expression of empathy, a skill that many adults are still rehearsing. It is, after all, possible to recognise emotion but fail in the capacity of empathetic understanding, instead showing apathy and indifference.
This crucial ability to understand and appropriately express emotion must also depend on socio-cultural factors, in keeping with the ecological perspective of the Bronfenbrenner model (1979). This model emphasises the important influence of the wider environment centred around the child’s ‘microsystems’, or micro–environment, in a nested effect. These uniquely influence individual development and behaviour, through an ever widening and complex mix of environ...
Table of contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Contents
Acknowledgements
About the Author
About this Book
Electronic Resources
1 Why Emotional Literacy is Good for Your School
2 Emotional Literacy as an Approach to Learning and Teaching
3 How an Emotionally Literate Approach can Support Inclusion
