# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Building Resilience: Exploring the Benefits of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

In today's fast-paced and ever-changing world, resilience has become a crucial skill for individuals of all ages. The ability to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to new situations, and persevere in the face of challenges is essential for personal growth and success. One effective way to develop resilience is through Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum.

Understanding Resilience

Resilience can be defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or adversity. It is the ability to maintain a positive mindset, stay motivated, and keep moving forward despite obstacles. Resilience is not about avoiding or denying negative emotions, but rather about embracing them and finding healthy ways to cope.

Building resilience is crucial because it allows individuals to navigate through life's ups and downs with greater ease. It helps them develop a growth mindset, which is the belief that their abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. Resilient individuals are more likely to persevere in the face of challenges, take risks, and learn from their mistakes.

Exploring Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a comprehensive approach to education that focuses on developing students' social and emotional skills. It encompasses five core components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

SEL helps students develop resilience by providing them with the tools and strategies to understand and manage their emotions, build positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and navigate social situations effectively. It equips them with the skills they need to cope with stress, setbacks, and adversity.

Integrating SEL into education has numerous benefits for students. Research has shown that students who receive SEL instruction demonstrate improved academic performance, increased social and emotional competence, and reduced behavioral problems. They also have better mental health outcomes and are more likely to graduate from high school and pursue higher education.

Benefits of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

A well-designed Social Emotional Learning curriculum can have a profound impact on students' resilience and overall well-being. Here are some of the key benefits of incorporating SEL into education:

Enhancing self-awareness and self-management skills

SEL curriculum helps students develop a deep understanding of their emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. It teaches them how to regulate their emotions, manage stress, and set goals effectively. By enhancing self-awareness and self-management skills, students become better equipped to handle challenges and setbacks.

Developing social awareness and relationship skills

SEL curriculum fosters empathy, compassion, and respect for others. It helps students develop the ability to understand and appreciate different perspectives, resolve conflicts, and build positive relationships. By developing social awareness and relationship skills, students learn how to navigate social situations and build a strong support network.

Improving decision-making and responsible behavior

SEL curriculum teaches students how to make responsible decisions based on ethical considerations, social norms, and personal values. It helps them develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and the ability to weigh the consequences of their actions. By improving decision-making and responsible behavior, students become more resilient and better equipped to face challenges.

Fostering emotional regulation and coping strategies

SEL curriculum equips students with a range of coping strategies to manage stress, regulate their emotions, and maintain a positive mindset. It teaches them how to identify and challenge negative thoughts, practice mindfulness, and seek support when needed. By fostering emotional regulation and coping strategies, students develop resilience and the ability to bounce back from adversity.

Implementing Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

Integrating SEL into the classroom requires a thoughtful and systematic approach. Here are some strategies for effective implementation:

Strategies for integrating SEL into the classroom

- Incorporate SEL activities and discussions into daily routines and lesson plans.
- Create a safe and supportive classroom environment that promotes open communication and respect.
- Provide opportunities for students to practice and apply SEL skills in real-life situations.
- Use literature, videos, and other resources to teach SEL concepts and skills.
- Collaborate with other educators to ensure consistency and continuity in SEL instruction.

Collaborating with educators and parents for effective implementation

Effective implementation of SEL requires collaboration between educators, parents, and other stakeholders. Here are some ways to involve educators and parents:

- Provide professional development opportunities for educators to learn about SEL and its benefits.
- Communicate with parents about the importance of SEL and involve them in the implementation process.
- Provide resources and tools for parents to support SEL at home.
- Foster a partnership between educators and parents to reinforce SEL skills and concepts across different settings.

Resources and tools for SEL curriculum development

There are several resources and tools available to support the development and implementation of SEL curriculum. These include:

- Online platforms and programs that offer comprehensive SEL curriculum and resources.
- Books, videos, and other media that provide examples and strategies for teaching SEL.
- Professional organizations and networks that offer training and support for educators implementing SEL.

Case Studies: Success Stories of SEL Implementation

Real-life examples of schools implementing SEL curriculum demonstrate the positive outcomes and impact on students' resilience. These success stories highlight the transformative power of SEL. For instance, a school in XYZ district implemented a school-wide SEL program and saw a significant decrease in disciplinary incidents and an increase in academic achievement.

Another example is ABC Elementary School, where teachers integrated SEL into their daily routines and witnessed improved student behavior, increased empathy, and enhanced problem-solving skills. These success stories serve as inspiration and motivation for other schools and educators to explore and implement SEL.

Conclusion

Building resilience is essential in today's world, and Social Emotional Learning curriculum provides a powerful framework for developing this crucial skill. By enhancing self-awareness, social awareness, decision-making, and coping strategies, SEL equips students with the tools they need to navigate through life's challenges with confidence and resilience.

I encourage you to explore and implement Social Emotional Learning in your own life, whether you are an educator, parent, or individual seeking personal growth. Start your EverydaySpeech Free trial today and discover the transformative power of SEL curriculum.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Building Resilience: Exploring the Benefits of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum | Everyday Speech

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Building Resilience: Exploring the Benefits of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum Building Resilience: Exploring the Benefits of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum In today's fast-paced and ever-changing world, resilience has become a crucial skill for individuals of all ages. The ability to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to new situations, and persevere in the face of challenges [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can combine the five components of emotional intelligence and leadership to become a more effective manager. But what is high emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ), and how can women leaders understand their EQ levels?
EQ is the human ability to recognize, understand, exploit, and manage one's emotions in positive ways. Leaders with high EQs are less stressed, better communicators, more empathetic, and more easily overcome challenges. Moreover, they know precisely how their mental state influences the emotional reactions of those around them.
The effectiveness of emotional intelligence in leadership is no small thing, it is a primary concern in climbing the corporate ladder as technical skills only go so far. The actual difference between a good leader and a brilliant one is the emotional element. This article looks at the five core components of emotional intelligence for professional growth.

5 Components of EQ that Boost Leadership Skills

The American psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman first coined the term emotional intelligence. He wrote for the New York Times for over 12 years, reporting on the complexity of the human brain and behavioral sciences [1].

Goleman's EQ theory comprises five core components: empathy, effective communication or social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation.

It doesn't take much to familiarize yourself with the skills that make up EQ. However, knowledge alone is of little use until you apply it to your life. What sets great leaders apart is their ability to understand and manage their emotions and actions through the lens of EQ. That's how you become a better, more compassionate, and inspirational leader.
EWF International provides a comprehensive leadership development ecosystem to equip and empower female leaders. Our corporate programming holds workshops on proven, actionable leadership development to improve EQ skills and build trust. Learn more about EWF leadership development here.
#1 Empathy (I Sense Your Pain)

Emotionally intelligent leaders can walk in another person's shoes. Knowing what someone is going through helps to understand them better. It's why empathy is a key component of successful leadership. Understanding managers are approachable, and they listen. The upshot of that is engaged teams and harmonious workplace cultures.

EQ Strength or Weakness?

Contrary to old beliefs, empathy shows strength, not weakness. It's a skill and a trait that helps leaders bond with their teams through compassion and understanding. Relating to others at the human level brings about mutual respect, making it easier to solve workplace issues or disagreements in a calm and constructive manner.

7 Empathy-Building Strategies

1. Start listening to others more without interrupting

2. Put yourself in someone else's shoes, especially during a disagreement

3. Recognize and show your appreciation for your team members

4. Be open to sharing your feelings where appropriate

5. Volunteer for a role in a worthy cause, e.g., a community project

6. Practice loving-kindness meditation or mindfulness

7. Work on your body language and reading that of others

#2 Effective Communication (Social Skills)

Comfortable interaction is another core component of EQ. Leaders with good social skills are very approachable, easy to talk to, and therefore strong team players. Effective communication is important for leaders as it helps build meaningful, mutually respectful relationships.Here are six more advantages of workplace social skills:

1. Sociable managers carry more persuasive influence

2. Cultivates an awareness of yourself and your team members

3. Adept at both conflict and relationship management

4. Enhanced social awareness

5. Better leadership and mentorship for helping develop rising talent

6. Expert at collaboration and cooperation

Some leaders are born with effective social skills but don't worry if you struggle. Any human characteristic labeled a skill means it is learnable. It doesn't take long, providing you're willing to step outside your comfort zone and address the insecurities that can hold you back.

7 EQ Strategies that Improve Social Skills

1. Show interest in other people

2. Enhance verbal and non-verbal(body language) communication skills

3. Observe and learn from the social skills of others

4. Practice confident eye contact

5. Ask open-ended questions(cannot be answered with a yes/no)

6. Develop a repertoire of icebreaker questions to start conversations

7. Listen more and practice active listening

#3 Self-Awareness

To be self-aware means you have a thorough recognition of your personal strengths and weaknesses. You know when to step back and question your emotional state and thoughts before acting. This critical component of EQ helps you quickly understand why you feel a particular way and how it affects the people around you.

The more you practice this essential leadership skill, the more natural it becomes. Having the power to influence outcomes boosts confidence, makes you a better decision-maker and improves how you relate with your team(s).

7 EQ Strategies to Develop Self-Awareness
EWF Executive Forums bring female leaders together in a safe, confidential, supportive, interactive space. Our non-compete forums help women sharpen their critical skills and gain invaluable peer feedback. You will find answers to impossible questions and learn how to handle the problematic issues impacting your role as a senior leader. Learn more about EWF's Executive Forums here

1. Be mindful of your strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, and emotions

2. Identify your triggers to help manage your own emotions

3. Keep a journal so you can reflect and learn from your experiences

4. Consider how your actions affect those around you

5. Use positive self-talk

6. Develop a growth mindset

7. Take psychometric tests, the EWF Emerging Leaders program uses Lumina Learning's Lumina Spark assessment in its curriculum

The secret here is to stay focused and track your progress. Lastly, don't be afraid to ask for constructive feedback from those you trust.

#4 Self-Regulation

To self-regulate is to turn negative thoughts and feelings into positive ones and know when to pause between emotions and subsequent actions. A leader who self-regulates can channel negative emotions in a productive rather than a destructive manner. This positive outlook makes it easier to solve problems with a cool head.

Self-regulation is a critical skill for effective leadership, allowing you to express yourself appropriately and calmly in front of your team. And the more resilient you become, the faster you recover from setbacks. You become more conscientious, flexible in your approach, and comfortable with change [5].

7 Strategies for Self-Regulation Development

1. Be attentive to your thoughts and feelings

2. Learn to accept your emotions and become moreemotionally resilient

3. Develop distress tolerance skills to handle negative emotions

4. Learn to view every new challenge as an opportunity

5. Know that there is always a choice on how you respond

6. Prepare to take responsibility for your actions

7. Stay mindful of your moral values while leading your team

Self-regulation doesn't mean you suppress your natural emotions or hide true feelings. It's simply a skill used to express yourself more appropriately. The goal is to avoid panic and manage stressful situations in a composed manner.

#5 Self-Motivation

Self-motivation is a critical component of emotional intelligence for leaders. No team will be at its best if its leader lacks internal motivation. A driven manager is passionate, dedicated, and highly focused on achieving goals. Motivated managers exude an optimistic disposition, and optimism is infectious, lifting employee morale and drive.

A self-motivated leader is very action-orientated. They continuously set high goals and have a genuine desire to achieve them. That means you never graduate or reach the top of your tree because you have a constant internal strive to be more and do better.
Want more resources to help improve your EQ? Read the Five Crucial Truths About Leading Through Anxiety. Or, take a look at EWF's Coaching Services for personalized coaching to take your leadership and career to the next level.
7 Strategies to Develop Self-Motivation

1. Set small, measurable, and realistic goals

2. Introduce interesting challenges to keep up momentum

3. Celebrate incremental achievements as well as end goals

4. Find intelligent ways to turn obstacles into opportunities

5. Be mindful of your role as a leader and its direct effect on your team

6. Reflect on your progress and look for ways to do better

7. Be open to change

To succeed as a leader, you must visualize yourself in a positive light even when things don't go well, viewing complications as setbacks and learning opportunities instead of failures. You keep a clear vision of what you want and how to achieve it. And to maintain motivation, you continually set new goals and relish new challenges.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goleman

2. https://www.catalyst.org/reports/empathy-work-strategy-crisis

3. https://www.eiconsortium.org/EQ-4X-more-significant-than-IQ/

4. https://www.researchgate.net/body-Language-in-Leadership/

5. https://www.tandfonline.com/approach-to-self-regulation/

6. https://hbr.org/great-leaders-need-the-right-mindset/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Components of Emotional Intelligence You Need to Become a More Effective Leader

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You can combine the five components of emotional intelligence and leadership to become a more effective manager. But what is high emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ), and how can women leaders understand their EQ levels? EQ is the human ability

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Tale of Two Mindsets | Tomfoolery | In the Tale of Two Mindsets, I ask you this, who's right?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
According to Dweck, people either have a fixed or a growth mindset, and the one that you adopt can affect every aspect of your life.

The Fixed Mindset

A fixed mindset is the belief that your intelligence, talents and other abilities are set in stone. You believe that you're born with a particular set of skills and that you can't change them.

If you have a fixed mindset, you will likely fear that you may not be smart or talented enough to achieve your goals. You may hold yourself back by engaging only in activities that you know you can do well.

Worse still, a manager with a fixed mindset may fear that their team members' achievements will surpass their own expertise. Or they may feel threatened if someone else spots an opportunity that they missed. To avoid being " found out" as lacking skills, the manager may discourage a star team member's development, and ignore their people's needs.

Dweck and her colleagues examined the brains of people with different mindsets. The brains of those with a fixed mindset showed higher activity when they were told that their answers to a series of questions were right or wrong - they were keenly interested to know whether they had succeeded or failed. But they showed no interest when researchers offered them help to learn from their mistakes. They didn't believe they could improve so they didn't try. [2] [3]

The Growth Mindset

If you have a growth mindset, you believe that, with effort, perseverance and drive, you can develop your natural qualities.

Neuroscientist Gilbert Gottlieb asserted that intelligence is determined by a combination of genes and environment, and that your environment influences the activation of genes during your lifetime. [4] Whether your personality is determined by nature or nurture is still heavily debated, but, according to Dweck, you can develop your own skills, abilities, talents, and even intelligence through your experiences, training and effort.

You use feedback and mistakes as opportunities to improve, while enjoying the process of learning and becoming more productive. This is what Dweck calls "purposeful engagement."

You also believe that you can overcome obstacles. You choose to learn from the experience, work harder and try again until you reach your goals.

In her research, Dweck built on the theory of neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to continue to form new connections into adulthood, after it has been damaged or when it is stimulated by new experiences. This supports the idea that you can adopt a growth mindset at any time of life. You may not become another Thomas Edison, but a growth mindset can help you to realize your own potential through learning and practice.

This is why Dweck says that offering praise when someone does well reinforces a fixed mindset, while praising their effort encourages growth. When you focus on an individual's results, they learn that trying doesn't matter. But praising their efforts rewards their process of learning, so they become more motivated to keep striving toward their goals.

How to Develop a Growth Mindset

Dweck provides some simple steps that you can take to switch to a new way of thinking.

Step 1. Listen to yourself. The voice of a fixed mindset will stop you from following the path to success. For example, can you hear yourself questioning whether you have the skills or talent for a project? Do you worry that you'll fail and that people will look down on you? When you think about taking on a new challenge, do you resist for fear of failing? Perhaps you've received negative feedback and you hear yourself making excuses, blaming others, and defending yourself. If you do, you can use thought awareness to combat negative thinking.

Step 2. Recognize that you have a choice. Everyone will face obstacles, challenges and defeats throughout life, but the way that you respond to them can make the difference between success and failure. If you have a fixed mindset, you'll see these setbacks as proof that you're just not up to the job. But if you look at them as opportunities for growth, you can develop a plan for action, such as learning, working hard, changing your strategy, and trying again.

Step 3. Challenge your fixed mindset. When you're faced with a challenge and you hear yourself thinking that you'd better not try because you don't have the talent to succeed, remember that you can learn the skills you need to achieve your goals. You may not succeed the first time, but practice will help you to develop. For example, if you're facing a challenge and you think, "I'm not sure I can do this. I don't think I'm smart enough," then challenge this fixed mindset by responding with, "I'm not sure if I can do it and I may not get it right the first time, but I can learn with practice."

Step 4. Take action. When you practice thinking and acting in a mindset of growth, it becomes easier to tackle obstacles in a more positive way. Think of it like practicing the violin or your hoop shot: nobody does it perfectly the first time. When you make a mistake, try to see it as a chance to learn.

Think of how you can help your team by using the growth mindset. Praise your people for their efforts and for having an attitude of learning. If you had a fixed idea of someone's abilities, recognize and appreciate them when they improve. You can support your team's development with workshops or coaching. To build teamwork and encourage people to voice their opinions and ideas, create an environment of open discussion and communication.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dweck's Fixed and Growth Mindsets - Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Effort

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to Dweck, people either have a fixed or a growth mindset, and the one that you adopt can affect every aspect of your life. A fixed mindset is the belief that your intelligence, talents and other abilities are set in stone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From Educational Leadership - September 1996 | Volume 54 | Number 1 Pages 6-11
Intereviwed by John O'Neil

John O'Neil is Senior Editor of Educational Leadership

Copyright 1996 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
On Emotional Intelligence: A Conversation with Daniel Goleman
Schools have historically concentrated on boosting students' cognitive abilities. But developing students' emotional smarts, argues Daniel Goleman, is just as vital.

John O'Neil and Daniel Goleman
Traditional conceptions of intelligence focus on cognitive skills and knowledge. You've investigated the idea of "emotional intelligence." What do you mean by that term?
Emotional intelligence is a different way of being smart. It includes knowing what your feelings are and using your feelings to make good decisions in life. It's being able to manage distressing moods well and control impulses. It's being motivated and remaining hopeful and optimistic when you have setbacks in working toward goals. It's empathy; knowing what the people around you are feeling. And it's social skill—getting along well with other people, managing emotions in relationships, being able to persuade or lead others.

And you contend that emotional intelligence is just as important as the more familiar concept of IQ?

Both types of intelligence are important, but they're important in different ways. IQ contributes, at best, about 20 percent to the factors that determine life success. That leaves 80 percent to everything else. There are many ways in which your destiny in life depends on having the skills that make up emotional intelligence.
Has research shown such a correlation?
Yes. For example, boys who are very impulsive, who are always getting in trouble in 2nd grade, are six to eight times more likely than other kids to commit crimes and be violent in their teen years. Sixth grade girls who confuse feelings of anxiety and anger, boredom, and hunger are the ones most likely to develop eating disorders in adolescence. What these girls lack is an awareness of what they are feeling; they're confused about what this feeling is and what it's called. So specific deficits in these skills can get a person in trouble, particularly a child who is growing into adulthood. On the other side, having these abilities can help you immensely in life; they affect everything from whether your marriage is going to last to how well you do on the job.
There's also a relationship between these emotional skills and academic success, isn't there?
Absolutely. It's not too surprising, really. We know that skills such as being able to resist impulsivity, or to delay gratification in pursuit of a long-term goal, are helpful in the academic arena.
Your book describes some fascinating findings from the "marshmallow" study at Stanford.
Right. Preschool kids were brought in one by one to a room and had a marshmallow put in front of them. They were told they could eat the marshmallow now, but if they delayed eating it until the researcher came back from running an errand, they could have two marshmallows. About one-third of them grabbed the single marshmallow right away while some waited a little longer, and about one-third were able to wait 15 or 20 minutes for the researcher to return.

When the researchers tracked down the children 14 years later, they found this test was an amazing predictor of how they did in school. The kids who waited were more emotionally stable, better liked by their teachers and their peers, and still able to delay gratification in pursuit of their goals. The ones who grabbed were emotionally unstable, they fell apart under stress, they were more irritable, more likely to pick fights, not as well liked, and still not able to delay gratification. But the most powerful finding was that the ones who waited scored an average of 210 points higher on the SAT.
Was that because their emotional habits were more conducive to studying, sticking with a task and thinking that it would eventually pay off?
That's part of it. Obviously, a child who can stick with a task can do his homework or can finish an assignment much better than a child who is distracted and goes off and does something else.

There's another factor, too: the physiology of the brain and the relationship between the emotional brain and the brain's executive areas. The prefrontal lobes just behind the forehead are where working memory resides. Working memory is what you are paying attention to at any given point. So everything you are mulling over, making a decision about, or are learning, is at first in working memory. All learning is in working memory. And the emotional centers that control moods like anxiety or anger have very strong connections to the prefrontal areas. So if a child is chronically anxious or angry or upset in some way, he experiences that as intruding thoughts. He can't keep his mind off the thing he is worried about.

Now working memory has a limited attention capacity. So, to the extent that it is occupied by these intrusive thoughts, it shrinks what's available in working memory to think about what you are trying to learn.
Is that what's occurring when someone has "test anxiety"?
Yes, test anxiety is a very good example. You can think of nothing else except the fact that you may fail. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because your working memory cannot manage both the extreme anxiety and the demands for retrieving the information that would help you pass. So I think that's why we find that children whose emotional lives are more under control and better managed are able to learn more.
We all know people who have a lot of self-insight, or who are virtuosos in social situations. But are those kinds of personality traits something that people are born with, or can everyone be helped to develop them?
The good news about emotional intelligence is that it is virtually all learned. Even though newborn children differ in terms of their temperament, for example, they are highly malleable.

The best data on this come from Jerome Kagan, who studied shy kids. He found that you can identify a tendency toward shyness within the first two weeks of life, by looking at how much an infant startles to a noise or whether they are likely to shy away from stimulating, new, novel, uncertain experiences. He followed kids from birth into childhood and teenage years and found that this is a remarkable predictor of shyness.

But he also discovered that a sub-group of children whose newborn behaviors suggested they would be shy turned out not to be. Kagan found that the parents of this group treated them differently. Instead of catering to the children's shyness and protecting them from the world, these parents pushed them a bit into challenging situations; you know, meet a new kid, let's go to this new place. Not in a way that overwhelmed them but in a way that gave them the continued experience of mastering something new. And by the time they got to kindergarten, those kids weren't shy. They weren't the most extroverted, but they weren't inordinately shy either.
What's the significance of these findings?
Well, they suggest something that, in theory, we've known all along: the brain is enormously malleable during childhood. The brain's regulatory centers for emotional response are among the last parts to become anatomically mature. They continue to grow into adolescence.

This is vitally important, because we're finding that the repeated emotional lessons of a child's life literally shape the brain circuits for that response. So if a child learns to manage his anger well, or learns to calm or soothe himself, or to be empathic, that's a lifelong strength.

That's why it's so critical that we help children develop the skills of emotional intelligence.
What about children who learn the wrong emotional responses from early on; who come from abusive homes, for example. Can they re-learn emotional skills or do the initial strategies become "hard-wired" in the brain?
It's harder, but the sooner we begin to teach children appropriate emotional responses the sooner these responses can become a part of their repertoire. A child may have learned that when you get mad, you yell and you hit. Someone has to help these children learn an alternative response that becomes stronger than the initial one. So instead of yelling and hitting, the child will stop, calm down, think before she acts, and so on.

Again, the good news about childhood is that it's a wonderful palette to work with. It may look like it's been painted on, but you can keep painting and eventually children can learn healthier emotional responses. The literature on resilient children, those who have grown up in the worst circumstances and yet thrived, shows that what made the difference wasn't the terrible circumstance of their chaotic home life, but the fact that one caring adult really got involved in their lives and helped them out. And oftentimes that person is a teacher.
Before talking about what schools can do to foster emotional intelligence, what can you say about the current state of the emotional well-being of children?
Childhood is harder than it used to be; we've got data on that. For example, in the last 20 years or so the rate of teen homicide has quadrupled and teen suicide tripled, and forcible rape among teens has doubled. Those are the headline-making statistics.

But there are other more subtle indicators of a growing general emotional malaise among children. Thomas Achenbach at the University of Vermont studied a random sample of American kids in the mid-70s and a comparable sample in the late '80s. He had them rated by their parents and teachers and found that, across the board, American kids on average had a growing deficit in these emotional skills. They had gone down on 40 indicators of emotional well-being, which is very alarming. This doesn't mean there aren't great kids, but on average kids were more impulsive, more disobedient, more angry, more lonely, more depressed, more anxious, and so on.

Let's face it: childhood has changed, and not necessarily in ways that anyone intended. The state of the economy now demands that parents work much harder and longer than they had to, so they have less discretionary time to spend with their kids than their own parents had with them. More families live in neighborhoods where they're scared about the kids even playing down the street, let alone going into a neighbor's house. And kidsare spending more time glued to a TV or in front of a computer, away from other children or adults. And most of the emotional skills I've discussed aren't learned on your own, they're learned through your interaction with other children and adults. That's why the emphasis on computers concerns me, helpful as they can be. More time with computers and TV means less time with other people. The changes in families are another reason I think it's vital that schools begin to teach these emotional skills, to promote "emotional literacy."
You're familiar with schools that have been trying to teach emotional literacy. How are they doing this?
A good example is the program developed in the New Haven schools, which goes from 1st through 12th grade and is developmentally appropriate. The program addresses all the skills I mentioned before, like empathy, how to calm yourself down when you are feeling anxious, and so on. In some grades, lessons in emotional intelligence are taught as a separate topic three times a week. In other grades it's part of courses such as health, even math or study skills. And all the teachers are familiar with the ideas and look for opportunities to teach them. So whenever a child is upset, it's an opportunity to make sure that they learn something from that experience that will help them.

In New Haven, they also use techniques that make healthy emotional responses a pervasive part of the school culture or environment. For example, a school I recently visited had a "stoplight" poster on the wall of every room. It indicates to kids that whenever you are distressed or upset or you have a problem, red light—stop, calm down, and think before you act. Yellow light—think about a number of different things you could do and what the consequences will be. Green light—pick the best one and try it out. Now that's a wonderful lesson in impulse control, in soothing yourself, and in making the distinction between having the feeling and what you do, how you act when you have the feeling. These are crucial lessons and kids are really learning them.
That's encouraging, because one of the trends that worries educators is that students seem to be more impulsive, more prone to act without thinking about the consequences.
I've taken aside 7th graders in New Haven and said, "Look, I know they teach you this stuff, but does it really make any difference to you?" And they all have stories to tell about how they're using these skills in their lives. In the culture of adolescents in New Haven, if someone "disses" you, you have to fight them; it's the code. But I talked to this kid, and he said: "You know, this guy was dissing my sneaks, and you know what I did? I told him I didn't agree with him. I like my shoes. And then I walked away." Well, that's revolutionary, and what's happening is that children are expanding their emotional repertoire in some healthy ways.
What are they finding in terms of results?
Well, it works. They've found that students are better able to control their impulses, they've improved their behavior, they have better conflict-resolution skills and skills in handling interpersonal problems.

That's consistent with what's happening in other programs aimed at emotional literacy. It seems important that this emotional literacy curriculum is a schoolwide effort; it's not just isolating the kids who appear to have the worst emotional problems. Ghettoizing is the wrong approach. For one thing, the decline in emotional well-being holds true for all groups of kids, from wealthy areas and poor ones. These lessons are not just for so-called problem kids. The public appears to be very skeptical these days about curriculums that address social issues, or that ask kids to work on their emotions instead of on their reading and math.
Isn't that a major obstacle to broader application of these ideas by schools?
Actually I've encountered the reverse. Parents and teachers are very interested in bringing this sort of curriculum into the schools, because they see that children need it. When they understand that you can do this without taking any time from the basics—which they've been able to do in New Haven—they're very supportive. It just makes good sense.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, by Daniel Goleman. New York: Bantam Books, 1995

Blatant disrespect, repeated fighting, and loneliness among students—until now these troubling situations in our schools have seemed unconnected. Daniel Goleman, a reporter for The New York Times, brings them together under one rubric: the need for emotional intelligence. This cluster of skills includes "self control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself."

Fortunately, says Goleman, these skills can, to some extent, be taught. "As a society," he says, "we have not bothered to make sure every child is taught the essentials of handling anger or resolving conflicts positively—nor have we bothered to teach empathy, impulse control, or any of the other fundamentals of emotional competence." Goleman eloquently explains new and extensive brain research on the neurobiology of our emotions. "The anatomy of emotional hijacking," for example, involves our amygdala reacting to a situation before our neocortex has had time to process it. He documents the link between emotions and long-term memory. And he discusses "flow," studied extensively by Mihaly Csikczentmihalyi. This is a state in which the brain "quiets down" and is more focused.

The research studies that Goleman cites indicate that emotional intelligence is the bedrock upon which to build other intelligences, and that it is more closely linked to lifelong success than is IQ. "Impulsivity in 10-year-old boys," for example, "is almost three times as powerful a predictor of their later delinquency as is their IQ." Goleman warns of the dramatic drop in "emotional competence" over the past two decades. As evidence, he cites soaring juvenile arrest rates for violent crimes; younger teenage girls getting pregnant; more children being withdrawn, anxious, and depressed; and more attention or thinking problems. "Educators, long disturbed by schoolchildren's lagging scores in math and reading, are realizing that there is a different and more alarming deficiency: emotional illiteracy."

Goleman believes schools must teach children how to recognize and manage their emotions, and that educators must model emotional intelligence in caring, respectful interactions with children. "Emotional circuits are sculpted by experience through childhood," he notes, and "we leave those experiences utterly to chance at our peril."

Published by Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. Price: $23.95.

—Reviewed by Launa Ellison, Clara Barton School, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Train Your Brain
By Jennifer J. Salopek
ASTD

http://www.astd.org/CMS/templates/index.html?template_id=1&articleid=20211

T&D spoke with author Daniel Goleman, who explains how emotional
intelligence outweighs cognitive ability and technical skills as a
contributor to success in the workplace.

In his first book, Emotional Intelligence, former New York Times
writer Daniel Goleman reported on scientific studies of emotion and
showed how to bring intelligence to emotion. He offered his book as
a "guide to making sense of the senselessness" that has recently
overtaken our world: random violence, school shootings-what Goleman
terms "emotional malaise."
In his second book, Working with Emotional Intelligence, published
this month by Bantam Books, the author translates his earlier
findings into a formula for success at work. He outlines a set of
emotional intelligence competencies that can contribute more to
workplace achievement than technical skills and cognitive ability
combined. He also proposes a set of guidelines to evaluate corporate
training programs on their attention to emotional intelligence
competencies.

Goleman currently serves as co-chairperson of the Consortium for
Research on Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace. He is a
psychologist and researcher in psychobiology and underscores his
findings with compelling data gleaned from modern neuroscience.
Recently, we spoke with Goleman about emotional intelligence
competencies, the guidelines, and his latest book.

Salopek: Why did you write Working with Emotional Intelligence?
Goleman: I wanted to give a rationale for looking at this range of
skill as separate from technical skills and cognitive ability. I also
wanted to explore the reasons that the transfer from training to job
performance has been so poor. This poor transfer is why we set about
looking for empirically grounded best practices and why we came up
with the ones we did.

Salopek: How did this book grow out of your first book?
Goleman: The first book became somewhat of a worldwide phenomenon.
It's been translated into almost 30 languages and has become a best-
seller in almost every part of the world. There are now over 4
million copies in print worldwide. In some countries it's one of the
best-selling books ever, such as Taiwan, Brazil, and Germany.

This is all to say that there was immense interest in it. What
surprised me was that I had been expecting to hear from educators,
because there's a lot about children in there, but I hadn't expected
the huge wave of interest from business. To my surprise, I was
answering requests for speeches and consulting from organizations all
over the world. This set me on an odyssey of talking to people in
organizations of all kinds about how emotional intelligence mattered
for what they were doing. The result is Working with Emotional
Intelligence.

Salopek: What was your primary goal for the book?
Goleman: To explore systematically, as I had for the first book, what
the empirical data suggested was the importance of these skills. I
was quite surprised myself to find out just how much emotional
intelligence-based competencies affect performance for jobs of all
kinds. They are twice as important as cognitive ability and technical
expertise combined. The higher you go in an organization, the more it
matters. So, for leadership positions, these skills account for close
to 90 percent of what distinguishes the most outstanding leaders from
average ones.

That puts a premium on getting people who have these abilities or on
cultivating these abilities in the people you already have and value-
which gets me to training.

I realized that there was really something significant that needed to
be done in setting new standards for training in this area. Most
companies say that they put a huge amount of effort into cultivating
this range of emotional intelligence competencies.

Salopek: What are the emotional intelligence competencies?
Goleman: [The competencies include] self-confidence, empathy, the
need to get results, constant improvement, influence, and teamwork.
These are the abilities that every organization needs to develop in
people, and yet when you look at the track record of development
efforts in those areas, it's disappointingly poor all too often.

Salopek: Can you give an example?
Goleman: There was a study done at a large pharmaceutical company.
The CEO was worried that they were spending $240 million a year on
training and development, and he didn't know what the return-on-
investment was. He asked for a state-of-the-art evaluation of
outcomes, especially of the premium development program for top
management, in which the executives went away for a week and the
people from a big-name business school came and talked to them about
leadership and so on. The company found that this program had a
slight negative impact on leadership performance as evaluated by
subordinates. That and other similar findings-showing that type of
program for supervisors has a negative impact on performance feedback-
well, it was a very sobering finding. And, of course, some [programs]
did work.

Salopek: So what is a company to do?
Goleman: The key question: What sets apart the programs that work
superbly from those that don't do much at all or actually have
negative effects? So I established and serve as co-chairperson of the
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations,
and our first project was to sift through the empirical literature on
development in this area and try to come up with best-practice
guidelines.

I have to emphasize "in this area," because one of the fundamental
misconceptions in the training world is the unexamined assumption
that you can teach every skill in the same way. But when you're
looking at emotional intelligence-based competencies, you're talking
about a set of human capabilities that are based on the workings of a
different part of the brain than pure cognitive ability or technical
skill.

If you're teaching someone a computer program or how to do a business
plan-something purely cognitive-it's fine to use the classroom model,
because you're using the part of the brain that goes to school. [This
is] the neocortex, the thinking brain, the topmost layers. This part
of the brain learns through association, and it can get it in a
single exposure. The brain is embedding that new information in a
contextual web of association, and it can do that very quickly.

But when you're talking about doing something like improving self-
confidence, or getting people to collaborate better, or motivating
[them] to get results, you're talking about a different kind of
learning. It's behavior change. These are complex abilities, and they
have to do with habits of thinking and feeling and reacting that have
been built up over decades. In order to help someone in these areas,
you need to both unlearn the counterproductive habit and relearn a
new, better way of doing things, and that takes time and practice and
motivation.

It's of fundamental importance that people in the training world
understand the difference between the two kinds of learning. This is
a new model of learning.

Salopek: You've coined the term amygdala hijack. What is that?
Goleman: One of the things that sets apart this range of capability
from cognitive or technical skills is that you're dealing with the
emotional brain, particularly the amygdala. [The amygdala] is the
brain's center for emotional memory, for emotional reactivity, and
which has the ability to scan everything that's happening to us
moment to moment to see if it perceives a threat.[If it does,] it
mobilizes the entire brain instantly in an amygdala hijack, the signs
of which are three: One, you have a very intense emotional reaction;
two, it's very sudden; and three, when the dust settles, you realize
that it was very inappropriate. It's because that part of the brain,
that particular circuit, is the key to the fight-or-flight response.
It's one of the most ancient parts of the brain and it's critical for
survival, and our brains today are still wired for this circuit to
take over when it sees there's an emergency.

In today's modern organization, it's a great saboteur. Part of
emotional intelligence is being able to manage this circuitry well.
That's a skill that can be learned.

Salopek: That's the positive aspect of emotional intelligence for all
of us, isn't it-that these skills can be learned?
Goleman: Unlike IQ, which is basically the same throughout life, or
personality, which doesn't change, emotional intelligence-based
competencies are learned abilities. Confidence, for example, is a
learned ability that improves job performance.

Salopek: In your opinion, is anyone untrainable in these competencies?
Goleman: My feeling is that no one is untrainable, if they are
motivated. The problem is, most companies send everybody to a
training [program], whether or not they want to be there. And they
don't even bother trying to get them interested in learning. They
just hope that they are-[a process that] one head of HR calls "spray
and pray." You send everyone to the workshop, you spray [training] on
them, and you pray that something will stick. But that's
insufficient. So, one of our guidelines has to do with getting people
motivated, making sure that the change fits with their values or
their goals, and making sure they're ready to change.

Salopek: The guidelines seem to require an intensely personal,
customized, one-on-one approach. Is that really feasible for
companies these days? It seems like it would be terribly Empathy is
one of the most important parts of a manager's tool kit, even though
it doesn't mean you're going to do what the other person would like
you to do.
expensive.
Goleman: The guidelines have to be understood as a statement of the
ideal, of the optimal. If you're dealing with top executives, for
example, then you can do executive coaching. You can afford to tailor
training programs. On the other hand, I don't think [those methods
are] only for people at the high end. I think there are ways to help
people choose from menus and tailor their own programs, which can be
done with large groups of people. In other words, you can find
economies in putting these guidelines into practice that don't demand
that you have an expensive executive coach for each person.

Salopek: You write that many of the emotional competencies are
closely tied to maturity and that older people seem to respond better
than younger people do.
Goleman: Emotional intelligence tends to improve throughout life. I
think that is what we used to call maturity and that people who are a
little older seem to be able to learn these things a little more
quickly. It doesn't mean younger people can't learn them. But they
may not be as quick at it as older ones. It's one of the paradoxes
that older dogs learn these tricks a little more quickly.

Salopek: With so many young people entering the workforce,
particularly in the next five to 10 years, are there special ways one
would teach these competencies to someone just out of college?
Goleman: Just because older people learn more quickly, you shouldn't
give up on young people. I think quite the opposite. There are signs
that there has been a decline in emotional intelligence in the young
people who are now entry-level in the workplace, relative to earlier
generations. At the same time, these capabilities are more important
than ever to companies' success, which says to me that you need to
put more effort into helping new hires.

I often hear, for example, in the engineering community, that young
people who are coming into companies aren't so good at teamwork,
sharing data, helping out, and so on. They aren't good at receiving
feedback; they take it as a personal attack. These are very basic
skills that new hires need to master in order to do their best.

Salopek: How do you feel about 360-degree feedback? You seem to take
it with a very large grain of salt.
Goleman: That's a slight misimpression. I think there are dangers to
360, particularly when it's used as the basis of a bonus, or a
promotion, and so on, because people can skew the results. Since
people who fill out 360s know the people they're evaluating well,
they can use [the evaluation] either as part of helping out a friend,
or as some kind of vendetta. So in order to avoid those, 360 works
best when it's for the person's own consumption, rather than for the
company, and when it's used as a prod to development, to help people
target where their weaknesses are and where they need to work. It
also helps people confront the fact that they may have some failings
or some gaps in performance they may not have seen so clearly.

I think that multiple perspectives on a person's performance are far
better than any one, whether it be your boss's or your own. It gives
you a truer picture of how things are. However, those perspectives
should be used for development [purposes].

Salopek: Have you encountered people who think there is no room for
empathy in business-that what still matters is the bottom line?
Goleman: I think that it's a misconception to say there's no room for
empathy. The misconception that people are operating under when they
say that-and many people do say that-is that experiencing how another
person feels or understanding their perspective necessarily means you
have to agree with them, or give in to them. I don't think it means
that at all, but it means you'll deal with them more skillfully or
more adeptly.

For example, in downsizing, lots of managers have to fire people
they've been working with for years. That's a very hard thing to do.
How you go about doing that is important not just for the people
you're letting go; whether you do it with empathy affects the morale
of the people who are left. They're watching you very closely, and
you can lose the loyalty of everyone who stays, depending on how you
handle the people you have to let go. Empathy is one of the most
important parts of a manager's tool kit, even though it does not
necessarily mean you're going to do what the other person would like
you to do.

Salopek: Do you plan to get into the specifics of how to teach
someone how to be, for example, self-confident? How do we teach an
attribute, as opposed to a fact or a process?
Goleman: There are many packages now for doing exactly those tasks.
We're not prescribing exactly which methods you should use, whether
it's modeling or the cognitive behavioral model in which you help a
person challenge his or her thoughts and start acting in ways that
those thoughts are [preventing]. We aren't making recommendations at
the level of methodology-rather the overall process in which those
methods should be embedded. I think that many of the generic methods
are quite effective but can be made more effective. One of the
biggest problems, for instance, is that people aren't given support
for on-the-job practice. In order to change behavior, you have to
give it weeks and months, not just a weekend seminar, and optimally
you have to help people try out the new behavior on the job where it
really counts. That's the way it's going to stick. And that's done
too seldom.

Salopek: Let's talk about some of the specific guidelines.
Goleman: Some of the guidelines are self-evident and have been part
of standard lore or convention in training for years. For example,
the first one is to do an assessment of the job, the competencies
needed for the job. Well, that's standard practice in many companies.
A second is to do an assessment of the person. That, oddly enough, is
not done so much, although it seems evident that you would try to
look at a person's strengths and limits. It's not done particularly
in formats in which people are sent as a group through a training
[program] with no regard for individual differences and needs.

Salopek: Isn't that type of customized process more expensive and
more time-consuming?
Goleman: I think it's not done for some practical reasons-the company
may not have money or time to do it. But it's not done even in a
rudimentary way. I think it's one of the places at which we start to
waste time, effort, and money. What it means is that some people in
any training [program] don't need the training, because they don't
actually have the weakness or the need as much as the other people in
the room. So there's no point in sending them.

Salopek: What's wrong with how 360-degree feedback assessments are
currently being delivered?
Goleman: You can go through all kinds of evaluations and then get
what amounts to a data dump, which can be very upsetting. The person
gets back all of the information (that was so carefully gathered) in
a rather careless and thoughtless way. The person doesn't know what
to do with it, and it's upsetting. That's another step at which you
can lose people. That's why we say that assessments should be
delivered with care.

Salopek: Assuming that we've assessed our employees and ascertained
their need for training, how can we make it more effective?
Goleman: Another interesting, simple rule of thumb that is ignored is
to gauge people's readiness to change. There is a very large body of
literature on behavior change that suggests that most people, most
often, are not ready to change much. That rule of thumb is largely
ignored in training and development.

We assume that people are at the same stage of readiness, but in fact
there is a set of methodologies for assessing readiness and actually
helping people who aren't ready, to get ready, which are almost never
incorporated in training. If they were, it would make things much
more efficient and effective. I think that assessing readiness is one
of the most universal absences in training programs. People don't
bother.

Another readiness guideline is to motivate people to go through the
training, rather than simply tell them to. This is another step at
which many organizations fall down. They don't get people excited
about the change; they don't try to prepare them or inspire them.

All of the guidelines are very fundamental. Some are very self-
evident or obvious, but when you look at the state of training, you
can also see that they are too-often ignored.

It's not that organizations shouldn't send entire classes of people,
but if they're going to be most effective in what people get from the
training and take back to the job, it would pay to do as many of
these different things as possible.

Salopek: How do we involve trainees in owning the success of the
training?
Goleman: It's important to make change self-directed. This means that
people actually choose from a menu of goals for development and
design their own plans.

Salopek: What if an employee is unclear about his or her own
strengths and areas needing development, and chooses goals that
aren't the most important?
Goleman: The process is part of a dialogue. The supervisor may not
want to support those choices. This is why you want to start with a
very good assessment and a clear profile of strengths and weaknesses.
This is why I think 360 is very important as a I'm picking up a
growing skepticism about the money spent on training and development,
without any hard data showing that it's paying for itself.
tool, because it makes it harder for people to deny what they really
need to work on-especially if you feed that information back to them
effectively.

"Self-directed" means that people tailor training to their own needs
and circumstances, particularly in terms of what they can practice on
the job.

Salopek: Why is it important to give people clear and manageable
goals?
Goleman: This is also self-evident, but not always done. Leadership
or team skills-many of those things are pretty fuzzy. If they're not
broken down into something that is a clear goal a person can work on,
then it's not very helpful at all in terms of an actual, workable
plan.

Another interesting element that would improve the effectiveness of
programs is a method called relapse prevention. A lot of the habits
people are trying to change, like being authoritarian, micromanaging,
and so on, are habits that people will fall back into under pressure.
The new learning is tender and fragile, and when the going gets
tough, people tend to do what they're most used to, which is the
habit they're trying to give up.

Relapse prevention is a way to prepare people for those moments so
they don't feel like, "Oh, I've blown it. I'm never going to get it.
I may as well stop trying." They can use moments when they relapse to
learn from and prepare themselves for the next time so it doesn't
happen again. While it's little used now in training, it's one of
those methods that would be a great enhancement.

Salopek: You emphasize the importance of the opportunity to practice
these new emotional intelligence skills.
Goleman: People are given too few chances to practice on the job, to
really make the new habit a lasting habit. They'll get a few days in
a workshop, then maybe they'll get a few weeks of follow-up, but deep
change and mastery take months and months of practice. If the end
goal is on-the-job performance, you want the new competence
eventually to come naturally to people. That's not going to happen
overnight. I believe that the follow-up period should be up to six
months.

There are good neurological reasons for giving people time to
practice. The part of the brain that you're trying to change learns
more slowly and needs lots of practice. That kind of practice needs
lots of support-doing it alone is very tough. In the training itself,
it's good to build a network of support that will be ongoing for the
learner-maybe a buddy system, or coaching, or weekly check-ins.
Whatever the circumstances might allow. The more that's done, the
more supported people will be in that ongoing practice.

There's a kind of six-week phenomenon in which people go to a
workshop and get very excited about it, and six weeks later it's like
nothing happened. All of these guidelines are trying to overcome that
inertia effect. Some other things that help are models on the job or
the sense that the change you're trying to make is really valued-
supervisors letting you know that they think this is really important
rather than ignoring it or putting it down.

Salopek: We started by talking about evaluation and how the
pharmaceutical company found that its leadership training was
actually having a negative effect. Return-on-investment is an
important concept in training now. How do your guidelines address
evaluation?
Goleman: One of the most crucial guidelines, and one of the least
used, is to do a hard evaluation of transfer to on-the-job
performance. I think that in the coming years, more and more HR
departments are going to be put under pressure to provide this kind
of data. I'm picking up in many different organizations a growing
skepticism about the money spent on training and development, without
any hard data showing that it's paying for itself.

I think that more and more trainers are going to be asked to do
evaluations that are more than happy sheets and show a transfer to
performance. Smart trainers will start doing that themselves and
offering the data-and start using the data to improve programs. It's
not that if you find a program that doesn't work as well as it
should, you necessarily should abandon it. You might rethink it.
However, you don't know that you need to rethink it unless you do
this kind of homework.

Salopek: What's next in the field of emotional intelligence? How are
we going to take this further?
Goleman: I think one of the next frontiers is looking at what it
means to have an emotionally intelligent group.

Time will tell whether companies embrace Goleman's ideas and provide
training in emotional intelligence competencies. In fact, one major
corporation already has. American Express Financial Advisors began
the research for its emotional competence training program in 1992
(see the box, Putting Emotion Into the Business Vocabulary). Recent
evidence supports Goleman's theories, at least anecdotally. A July
1998 survey of human resource directors at Fortune 1000 companies
identified interpersonal skills as vital to an organization's overall
success. The survey, conducted by the Memphis communications firm
O'Connor Kenny Partners, asked HR directors to rank the importance of
training in 10 different communication skills. Not only did
interpersonal skills rank highest, but other emotional competencies,
such as listening and persuasion, outranked the only two technical
skills-reading and writing-on the survey.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Goleman is co-chairperson of the Consortium for Research on
Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at the Rutgers Graduate
School of Applied Psychology; 413.268.0188; goleman @java.net.

--

A PDF copy of this article from ASTD may be available. Try a search of www.astd.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From Educational Leadership - September 1996 | Volume 54 | Number 1 Pages 6-11 Intereviwed by John O'Neil John O'Neil is Senior Editor of Educational Leadership Copyright 1996 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development On Emotional Intelligence: A Conversation with Daniel Goleman Schools have historically concentrated on boosting students' cognitive abilities.