Developing Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Among Gifted Children*

Moshe Zeidner University of Haifa

*Invited address, “Creativity, Innovation and Giftedness Conference”,

Budapest, April 25th, 2017

Tentative Guidelines for

Development of an EI Training

Program for Gifted Students

Tentative EI-Training Program We now present ten broad guidelines for developing, implementing, and evaluating EI training programs for gifted students, stemming from:

Generic program planning and evaluation principles as applied to the development of emotional abilities in gifted students

Ideas culled from both the EI and giftedness literature.

In developing this program, we adopt an ability-based model of EI, stressing:

Input (emotion identification and perception)

Processing (emotion understanding and emotion assimilation)

Output (emotion management in self and others).

Some Working Tenets

• Giftedness does not carry with it any inherent risk for emotional problems – generally due to misfit with environment

• At the same time, social and emotional needs of gifted and talented students are frequently unrecognized, with negative consequences (Robinson, 2002) – Most health professional are not adequately

trained to recognize needs of gifted

– Few interventions based on comprehensive models of emotional development

• Failure to explicitly target affective components characteristic of gifted may compromise or prevent actualization of potential

Pre-Planning Stage

Program Guidelines

I. Assess

environmental

resources and

potential

support for an

EI program for

the gifted

Brief Description

• Program planners need to establish and assess

the resources in the school (or school district)

under consideration prior to program planning

• The assessment is needed to evaluate to what

degree the EI training program is congenial

with :

– Existing practice and culture of the

school/district

– Expectations of the administrators, school

principal, and teachers (stakeholders)

– Sschool’s readiness to implement the EI training

program.

• Needed resources (funding, personnel,

professional development, and venues for

conducting the training activities) also need to

be evaluated at this stage

Pre-Planning Stage

Program Guidelines

II. Conduct systematic

need assessment

among target

population

Brief Description

• Prior needs assessment research is

necessary as a prerequisite for program

planning

– To map out the kinds of emotional

abilities gifted students display

• EI training programs could

potentially focus on:

• Enhancing relatively strong

abilities of the gifted

• Strengthening relatively weak

abilities

• Developing new ones.

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

III. Base intervention activities on a solid theory of EI

Brief Description

• Emotional intervention programs are most effective when grounded in sound psyco-educational theory (Zins et al., 2004).

• The specific model of EI undergirding the program should dictate:

– Goals assessed during program evaluation

– Specific emotional abilities targeted

– Relevant measures employed for need assessment and impact evaluation.

Different conceptualizations of EI would lead to different:

Intervention programs

Techniques

Measures

Outcomes

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

III. Base development of intervention activities on a solid conceptualization of EI (continued)

Description

• Ability-based model of EI: fostering

such EI facets as:

– emotion identification

– expression of motions

– monitoring of emotions

– utilization of emotions in intellectual goals

– regulation and control of emotions

• Trait models: fostering abilities, such

as:

– empathy

– motivation

– integrity

– assertiveness.

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

IV. Carefully specify program goals , objectives and behavioral outcomes

Brief Description

• EI training programs should be based on a coherent rationale for the specification of goals and objectives

• Vague or ambiguous program objectives are often phrased as abstract statements of desired outcomes

– (e.g. “provide talented students with emotional abilities to succeed in school and in life”)

• These need to be clarified and be broken down into specific components or abilities

– (e.g. “provide talented students with the ability to recognize emotions, express them effectively, understand their antecedents, and adaptively cope with them”).

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

V. Translate program

goals and objectives

into specific

program activities

(Example: Objective--

training emotion

regulation strategies)

Brief Description

• Discuss different ways to regulate negative

emotions (e.g., arising from failure to achieve

academic goals) and the effectiveness of

different strategies

• Write about a positive emotional experience

you experienced with your peers in the gifted

classroom and identify strategies you used to

deal with that emotion, evaluating how

effective each strategy was.

• Describe a time when you experienced envy of

other gifted children in your class. What

triggered it? How did you handle the envy?

• Describe the effects a chosen emotion control

strategy had, and how the emotion could have

been managed more and less effectively.

Program Guidelines

VI. Assure

professional

development

of program

personnel

Brief Description

• Once program objectives and activities

are in place, important to assure

professional development of teaching

and program staff

• Essential to identify appropriate

dedicated and talented teachers, so that

they can fulfill their professional role in

implementing EI interventions for the

gifted

• Can be achieved via training workshops

and on-site consultation, essential for

successful program implementation.

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

VII. Fully blend

and integrate

the EI

program into

the routine

school

educational

curriculum

Brief Description

• EI training program should be designed to

integrate seamlessly into the school

curriculum

– Lessons on emotions and emotional

abilities ca nbe blended into all subject

areas

• Gifted students can learn how to :

– Harness aggressive emotions in gym class;

– How to handle stress or frustration in math

or science class;

– How to empathize with one another while

reading powerful literature or analyzing

fictional or historical persona.

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

VIII. Provide

provisions for

practice, feedback,

and for

generalizing the

domain of

emotional skills

across different

classes of

behavioral

performance

Brief Description

• To become part of one’s socioemotional

arsenal, emotional skills require:

– Practice of what is learned

– Environmental feedback on one’s

performance

• Necessary to provide opportunities for

students to apply emotional skills, both in

and out of the classroom

• Homework exercises would be particularly

helpful in inculcating these skills at home,

in the schoolyard, and in the

neighborhood.

Program Planning and Implementation

Program Guidelines

IX. Interventions need to

consider special

attributes and needs

of gifted individuals

Brief Description

• Program should carefully assess

attributes of gifted population that might

impact on outcome:

• Potential risks

Specific psychological stressors

Low social self-concept

Poor peer relations and alienation

Alienation

Competitiveness

Socially proscribed perfectionism

• Protective factors and mechanisms High cognitive abilities

Exceptional problem-solving

High academic self-concept

Strivings for excellence and grit

–

Program Guidelines

X Interventions should

be accompanied by

systematic monitoring

of program process

and evaluation of

program outcomes

Brief Description

• A. Process evaluations:

• Assessimg the accurate delivery of program activities and measuring program intervention is crucial for program evaluation

• B. Impact evaluations:

• Evaluation seeks to link the goals and activities of the program to empirical evidence that programs are being carried out as planned and they have the desired effect

Program Evaluation

Program Can be Complemented with:

• Strengthening coping strategies (e.g., guided imagery, relaxation techniques)

• Role Playing and simulation

• Mentorship and positive role models

• Journal writing

• Reading and discussing self-help books

• Counseling

• Bibliotherapy and Cinematherapy (reading books and watching movies about gifted )—

– through vicarious identification with main characters, readers and viewers can try on new roles, experience feelings, and safely explore alternative solutions to conflicts

For those gifted students who evidence

troubling social, emotional or

interpersonal behaviors… • The EI construct offers a potentially

useful conceptual framework to assist in designing helpful therapeutic interventions.

• Future training programs might target selected vulnerabilities attributed to gifted students, such as: – Feeling alienated from typical children

– Maladaptive coping with stress

– Threats to academic self-concept associated with big-fish-little-pond effect(Zeidner & Schleyer, 1999)

• Only experience with EI program implementation and evaluation would serve to answer these questions.

Concluding Comments • Many of the currently employed EI programs are promising, but

few have been systematically modeled upon EI or designed in a way

that is likely to lead to long-term change.

• It remains uncertain which of the components of EI should be

emphasized and which are most malleable and responsive to

training.

• At this stage, we can only speculate that:

– whereas certain “source” personal dispositions may be difficult to

change (emotional stability, coping styles, etc.),

– it may be more possible to target “surface” emotional abilities

and behaviors (e.g. learning to manage emotions in stressful

encounters, understanding antecedents and consequences of

emotions).

• Thus, it is critical for psycho-educational researchers to continue to

establish evidence-based strategies that educators can effectively

implement, particularly for the gifted.