Success in school requires a certain level of intellectual ability or intelligence as demonstrated by how well a child reads, uses language and logic, understands and manipulates numbers. Equally important in supporting school success are the abilities to get along with others, regulate one's emotions and behavior and cope with frustration, disappointment or problems.
In my role as a school social worker I am part of the evaluation team to which children are referred when academic success eludes them and they experience long-term difficulty or failure in school. Children referred for special help or intervention due to academic problems are often described in terms of the behaviors they exhibit as well as the difficulties they have with academic work. Often these children are characterized as having socialization problems with peers and difficulty communicating their feelings in an acceptable, socially appropriate manner.
The literature on human intelligence offers new ways to understand the struggles and strengthen the abilities of children who do not usually experience success at school. The theories of multiple intelligences and of emotional intelligence expand our thinking about the ways in which the abilities and strengths of children can be viewed, affirmed, reinforced and accessed. Of the multiple dimensions of intelligence that Howard Gardner has isolated and described, the dimension of intrapersonal intelligence relates most directly to the nature of my work of providing social work counseling to students who struggle at school. Gardner describes intrapersonal intelligence as the "access to one's own feeling life...the capacity instantly to effect discriminations among ... feelings and, eventually, to label them, to enmesh them in symbolic codes, to draw upon them as a means of understanding and guiding one's behavior." (Gardner, 1983, p. 239)
Research on emotional intelligence, specifically the writings of John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey and Daniel Goleman, also lends insight to understanding the functioning of children at school. Mayer and Salovey (1989) put forth a definition of emotional intelligence as consisting of the following five domains:@Text-ni:
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1. Knowing one's emotions
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2. Managing emotions
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3. Motivating oneself
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4. Recognizing emotions in others
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5. Handling relationships
As Mayer and Salovey (1989, 1993) postulate, self-awareness, that is the ability to notice, recognize and monitor one's feelings, underlies all other aspects of emotional intelligence. An understanding of one's emotional reactions and an ability to identify and access one's feelings are thus seen as essential for personal and social effectiveness. Greater understanding of one's emotions increases one's ability to manage or cope with those emotions and with life's inevitable frustrations and setbacks. Being in touch with one's feelings enables a person to make surer, wiser and healthier decisions, from making the simplest choices to handling and sorting through life's major dilemmas. Empathy, the ability to understand or tune in to others, also requires a person to first be tuned in to his or her own emotional reality.
Goleman also identifies self-awareness as the "fundamental emotional competence on which others, such as emotional self control, build." ( Goleman, 1995, p. 47 ) He too emphasizes the importance of self-awareness which permits one to step back from one's experiences, to see and interpret one's reactions, understand one's emotional workings and say what one is experiencing rather than be swept away by the power of emotions. This is the first step, in Goleman's view, towards being capable of achieving mastery of one's emotions, a key skill of the 'emotionally intelligent' individual.
The unit that I present here will be used in my counseling work with young adolescents in grades 7 through 9 in the middle and high schools where I work. Students in these grades are particularly vulnerable socially, emotionally and educationally. They are going through the rapid physical transformation that accompanies puberty: sexual development, dramatic changes in height, weight and shape, changes in facial appearance, all of which may produce insecurity, self-criticism and self-consciousness. Their newly evolving sense of self is fragile; their relationships with others are becoming more complex, deeper, and more confusing; their social world is becoming more important but also more pressure-laden. A student who hasn't had much success at school can develop a negative self image as a student at this time, causing the young adolescent to become discouraged, turn off, lose interest, or drift away from school. The population of students with which I work as a school social worker tends to consist of those students for whom school has not been an arena for success.
The dramatic cognitive development that takes place during early adolescence enables a young person to think and see the world in new ways, with an increased capacity for reasoning and abstract rather than concrete thinking. Young adolescents begin to think in more complex ways about the issues that affect them and their world. They also turn that cognitive sophistication inward, wondering who they are, what makes them unique, and how they fit into their world. From a psychoanalytic perspective, adolescence is the second phase in the separation - individuation process, the first phase having taken place around age two. Adolescent behavior, especially when oppositional, rebellious or testing of boundaries, serves to help define self and non-self, differentiating 'this is me' from 'this is not me'. The central developmental task of adolescence being identity formation, young adolescents are searching to learn more about themselves, their strengths and abilities, while defining their ideas, ideals and principles.
My curriculum unit will dovetail naturally with this developmental task and has as its goal the intent to increase self-awareness and self-reflective ability in the student participants. The unit will attempt to achieve the following objectives:
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1. In didactic sessions, students will define and differentiate external and internal experience. With the goal of developing self-awareness, students will identify the characteristics of their internal lives and develop techniques and vocabulary for understanding and sharing their feelings and inner experiences.
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2. Through activities that guide them to explore the ways in which their external and internal worlds are both alike and different from one another's, each student will identify characteristics that differentiate and define his/her uniqueness as a person as well as traits, viewpoints or experiences that he/she shares with others.1
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3. Students will begin the process of integrating this learning about themselves into a concept of self which incorporates an appreciation of one's unique skills and strengths, a realistic appraisal of one's areas of weakness and an understanding of how one can strive to capitalize on the strengths and compensate for the weaknesses.2
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4. Students will use this self understanding to develop the skills which are an outgrowth of it: improved ability to understand and cope with feelings, more informed decision-making, more effective and assertive communication skills, all of which lead to an improved sense of efficacy and self-esteem.
I am hoping that through participation in the lessons and activities presented in this unit a ripple effect of success will be created. As students' self-awareness increases, the connection between feelings and behavior will become easier to recognize, leading to improved decision making ability and improved self control. As the work of Gardner, Goleman and Mayer and Salovey indicates, the better one understands one's feelings the more control one is likely to have over them. Self-knowledge and the growth it produces can help young people cope more effectively with their emotions, with frustrations, with problems and disappointments. It can produce increased self-esteem, as the young person is able to define and recognize areas of strength in him/herself not previously acknowledged or identified.
Ackerman and Izard (1994) attribute a potentially very important role to self reflection in the learning process: if self reflection / self examination can be applied to analyze ones success or failure, one's sense of personal control can be increased, leading to improved motivation in future tasks (p. 735). Increased self-awareness can thus contribute to an improved understanding of the skills required and the obstacles faced in the classroom, enabling a student to take a more active role in understanding his/her needs, communicating with teachers, advocating for and effectively utilizing extra help.
Robert Sternberg's writing also describes the important role played by self-awareness. One of Sternberg's (1998) constructs, that of 'personal navigation', investigates the connection between self-awareness and self-efficacy. Describing personal navigation as "the means by which self-awareness is translated into a plan of action for one's life" (p. 222), Sternberg characterizes it as the degree of control or mastery a person has over his/her journey through life. This sense of direction in life involves the ability to set personally suitable goals, construct a plan to achieve them, have the capability to actualize the plan, and cope with the inevitable obstacles encountered along the way. Sternberg relates personal navigation to self- awareness in this way: "...the most essential elements of sense of direction involve self understanding in intellectual terms (what Gardner ... refers to as 'intrapersonal intelligence'), in emotional terms ... and in the integration of the two." (p. 227) In Sternberg's view, it is important that one's self understanding be comprehensive: "...finding direction in life involves applying one's self understanding broadly, to one's personality, emotions and interests, as well as to one's intellectual talents." (p. 228) The curriculum presented here, in keeping with Sternberg's viewpoint, will guide the student participants through a process of self-exploration in the broadest possible way.
