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loadingTeaching Feeling: How Educators Can Nurture Emotional Growth
Hind MoutaoikilR&D Manager
Mon Apr 21 2025
In the bustling corridors of modern education, where knowledge acquisition and academic prowess often take centre stage, a quieter yet equally vital component of learning sometimes goes unnoticed: emotional development.
In the bustling corridors of modern education, where knowledge acquisition and academic prowess often take centre stage, a quieter yet equally vital component of learning sometimes goes unnoticed: emotional development. The cultivation of emotional intelligence—that profound wisdom which allows us to navigate our internal landscape and connect meaningfully with others—remains one of education's most significant yet underappreciated challenges.
The Emotional Classroom: Beyond Academic Achievement
Educational institutions have long excelled at developing intellectual rigour. Our classrooms produce brilliant mathematicians, eloquent writers, and innovative scientists. Yet the ability to recognise, understand, and manage emotions—both one's own and others'—represents a different kind of intelligence, one that traditional curricula might not explicitly address.
“Emotional literacy is the ability to translate our emotions into words so that our feelings and thoughts can be held out in the intellectual space between two people, shared and reflected on, so that we can think about what we’re feeling. It is a natural outgrowth of sound emotional development. To attain and maintain emotional sobriety, we need to learn to tolerate our strong feelings and translate those feelings into words.”— Tian Dayton, Emotional Sobriety: From Relationship Trauma to Resilience and Balance
Indeed, research consistently demonstrates that emotionally intelligent individuals tend to be more resilient, form healthier relationships, and navigate workplace challenges more effectively. These skills aren't merely nice-to-have supplements to academic knowledge; they represent essential wisdom for living well.
Creating Emotionally Aware Learning Environments
Progressive educators throughout Britain are developing innovative approaches to nurturing emotional intelligence alongside traditional subject matter. These strategies often begin with creating safe spaces where feelings can be acknowledged without judgement.
“Demystify emotions. Teaching children—as early as possible—to identify their own feelings and understand the emotions of others is a great way to foster empathy and other social-emotional skills.”— Shauna L. Tominey & Elisabeth C. O’Bryon
This approach recognises that emotional awareness begins with identification—putting names to feelings creates the foundation for understanding them. When children learn to distinguish between frustration and disappointment, or excitement and anxiety, they develop the emotional vocabulary that underpins emotional wisdom.
Teaching Through Modelling
Perhaps the most powerful tool educators possess is their capacity to model emotional intelligence themselves. Children observe how adults respond to setbacks, navigate conflicts, and manage stress. When teachers demonstrate self-awareness and healthy emotional regulation, they provide living lessons in emotional literacy.
“By modeling emotional regulation, I not only manage my own stress but also teach an invaluable lesson to my students—one that fosters resilience, empathy, and self-awareness. Emotional regulation is a skill that can transform not just how we lead, but how we connect with and support the people around us.”— Edutopia
This transparency demystifies emotional management and offers students practical strategies they can adopt in their own lives.
Curriculum Integration: Embedding Emotional Learning
Forward-thinking schools are moving beyond standalone "wellbeing lessons" to integrate emotional learning throughout the curriculum. Literature classes become opportunities to explore character motivations and feelings. History lessons examine the emotional drivers behind historic events. Even mathematics can incorporate discussions about frustration, perseverance, and the satisfaction of solving challenging problems.
Children should have sufficient opportunities to practice meaningful social-emotional skills throughout the school day. Instruction also must be delivered intentionally across the day to facilitate generalization across contexts in which the skills are needed.”— Unpacking the Pyramid Model by Hemmeter et al.
This holistic approach honours the interconnectedness of intellectual and emotional development, recognising that wisdom emerges at their intersection.
Digital Natives, Emotional Immigrants
Today's students navigate an increasingly complex social landscape, where digital interactions often lack the emotional cues of face-to-face communication. Teaching emotional intelligence in this context requires additional dimensions of awareness and understanding.
“The way of using new technologies significantly affects the processing of information (including emotional information) and interaction with others, which are the basis of various emotional experiences... The functioning of digital natives is mediated in new technologies. The use of ICTs particularly affects communication with other people, social interactions and the getting and processing of information.”— Kosacka, The Narratives about Contentment in Two Generations of Digital Natives
This digital emotional wisdom has never been more crucial, as young people negotiate social media platforms where emotional nuance can easily be lost.
Measuring What Matters
As education continues its perpetual evolution, questions arise about how we measure emotional development. Traditional assessment methods fall short when applied to such intricate, personal growth.
Innovative schools are developing observational frameworks and reflective practices that acknowledge emotional growth without reducing it to simplistic metrics. This represents a significant shift in educational philosophy—one that honours the complexity of human development.
An example of this shift can be seen in schools adopting frameworks like RULER from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER is designed to develop the emotional intelligence of both students and adults through a focus on recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions.
Rather than reducing emotional growth to simple metrics, RULER uses tools and strategies that foster a common emotional language, encourage self-reflection, and integrate emotional skills into daily school life. This approach emphasizes ongoing inquiry cycles, coaching, and professional development, allowing for nuanced observation and reflection on emotional development.
The Educator's Journey
Nurturing emotional intelligence in students requires teachers to embark on their own journey of emotional awareness. Professional development increasingly includes training in emotional literacy and regulation techniques.
This sentiment echoes the fundamental truth that teaching feeling is not merely about implementing strategies or following curricula—it's about creating genuine human connections built on mutual respect and understanding.
Looking Forward: The Promise of Emotional Education
As we look toward the future of British education, the integration of emotional wisdom into our teaching practices offers tremendous promise. Students who develop strong emotional intelligence alongside academic knowledge emerge better prepared for an increasingly complex world.
The wisdom to understand one's own emotions and empathise with others represents perhaps the most valuable education we can provide. It transcends subjects and syllabi, equipping young people with the internal resources to lead meaningful, connected lives.
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Hind Moutaoikil
R&D Manager
Hind is a Data Scientist and Computer Science graduate with a deep passion for research and development in data analytics and machine learning. With a solid foundation in business intelligence and statistics, Hind has experience working with a variety of programming languages such as Python, Java, and R. Through previous roles in internships and remote projects, Hind has gained expertise in transforming raw data into actionable insights. Focused on advancing the field of data science, Hind contributes to research and articles exploring the latest trends and breakthroughs in R&D.
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