Emotional development in Scouting - 1st World Scout Education Congress

Emotional Development in Scouting

© Wor ld Scout Bureau Inc . 2


Why do we have this session?

“The purpose of the Scout movement is to contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.” (WOSM)

“We now understand that higher-level thinking is more likely to occur in the brain of a student who is emotionally secure than in the brain of a student who is scared, upset, anxious, or stressed.” (Mawhinney and Sagan)



"People in good moods are better at inductive reasoning and creative problem solving” (Salovey & Mayer)

"People high in emotional intelligence are expected to progress more quickly through the abilities designated and to master more of them.” (Salovey and Sluyter)

“All learning has an emotional base.” (Plato)



The "SPICES" framework defines emotional development as one of the six core areas of educational objectives within youth programme in Scouting:

Social S Social SPhysical P Physical PIntellectual I Intellectual ICharacter C Character CEmotional E Emotional ESpiritual S Spiritual S


Defining the concepts

Emotion is a subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by…

• psychophysiological expressions• biological reactions• mental states


Defining the concepts

Emotional intelligence (EI) is is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups.

The ability model of EI (Salovey & Mayer) has four dimensions:• Perceiving emotions• Using emotions• Understanding emotions• Managing emotions


Perceiving emotions

…the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including the ability to identify one's own emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.


Using emotions

…the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.


Understanding emotions

…the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.


Managing emotions

…the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.


A short video example of managing emotions…


Emotional learning involves

1.Self-awareness

2.Self-management

3.Social awareness

4.Relationship skills

5.Responsible decision making


Self-awareness

is the ability to identify your emotions, the ability to tie our thoughts, feelings and actions to behaviour.

How to learn self awareness? Reflection, conflict mediation, through circles, journalizing, having them act their impact on the world and how to shift so as to make a different choice next time.


Self management

is the ability to self motivate, to have self control, to regulate one’s emotions

How to learn self-management?

breathing exercise, counting to five, taking a break.


Social awareness

is about embracing diversity, having empathy for others.

How to learn social awareness?

Most Scouting activities, service addressing projects social justice issues, role playing could be a great opportunity for Scouts to address, how a person might have felt in a conflict.


Relationship skills

is the ability to work collaboratively with someone, to resolve conflict. It is a skill we need our whole life.

How to learn relationship skills?

Scouting helps address this skill through the Scout method, incorporating the relationship skill development to the core curriculum could enhance what is already being done to maximize its outcomes.


Responsible decision making

is considering the well being for self and others, It is evaluating the consequences of various behaviour or actions.

How to learn responsible decision-making?

We do this through shared agreements, one to one problem solving or the patrol debating an issue. When embedded in the core curriculum for multiple years It helps in fulfilling Scouting’s mission of educating the youth to become active citizens thus helping to create a better world.


Questions? Comments?


Emotional Development & Education in Scouting

Form groups of 3 to 5 people

Each group will be given a question to answer. You will have 10 minutes to come up with an answer to the question.

After 10 minutes, we will briefly present the answers of each group, and then have a joint discussion.


Conclusions: Emotional Development in Scouting

How do make sure adult leaders understand the importance of the emotional dimension of

Scouting education?

What concrete tools do we provide to work with emotional development?

How can Scouting contribute to the emotional development or emotional intelligence of a

young person?

How can we take emotional aspects systematically into account when developing youth

programme?


Finally: Some benefits of Emotional and Social learning

•Reduces aggression and emotional distress • Increases helping behaviours • Improves positive attitudes toward self and others

(Durlak et al. 2011)

Remember: Creating a better world starts from creating a better “self”


Evaluation

Please fill in the evaluation forms provided by the Congress. Thank you!