• Subtheme 3: Opportunities for practice development
Each of these subthemes has been dissected into smaller sections where appropriate. At the end of each of these subthemes I have included a discussion that considers current thinking and theoretical perspectives to develop further meaning within each of them.
Subtheme 1: Current practice: Learning from experience and from
others:
This section covers areas of practice that are already present and that students’ recognise as important to develop their socio-emotional intelligence.
Learning socio-emotional intelligence from others was important to all students. Drew told me that “It was a big help that I had other people that were in a similar boat.” When talking about their upbringing Drew further said:
“I had all my needs physically met and everything but social lives, we didn't really have many friends. My mum didn't really have many friends and things. So, it was more of my adult life that I'd spent the time making the friends and meeting people. And even now sometimes I'm still a bit in some social situations you know, uh, I don't always necessarily know what to say…how to conduct conversations sometimes you know. I'll find myself almost asking lots of questions or things like that which, I might not
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When I asked Drew what that behavior had been modelled on, they stated:“My environment, advice from other people, reading information about autism in itself or Asperger's”
Within the context of their Fda experience, modelling would happen whilst attending the lessons with their group, but also by observing their lecturers and others in practice. What is more, students acknowledged that getting to know their peers and sharing their learning journey together was an important component for developing their socio-emotional intelligence as they felt that they belonged and provided a safe space for them to share their ideas. Alex asserted:
“social learning is quite an important [aspect] as part of learning about social and emotional intelligence.”
Furthermore, students said that during activities such as group work, they practiced active learning, negotiation, effective communication and other “soft skills” that are related to socio-emotional intelligence. Spencer acknowledged that during group work activities they:
“Built up like a mini community within the students within the room so that was really good because you didn’t feel on your own… sort of trying to swim against the current.”
They went on to say:
“Being part of a small group is nice as well and although the fact that Uni is so big and it’s so much going on I did like the fact that we had a very close class I think that was really good”
Therefore, the importance of learning together is reinforced. This was also prevalent during plenaries where the lecturer was facilitating rather than teaching and students could learn from each other. Within this context, the lecturer to them was modelling and demonstrating socio-emotional intelligence traits that they could follow. For example, setting the tone of the situation, or using what they saw as positive strategies to engage students. Furthermore, to them, learning occurred naturally and was not forced. An example of this was given by Jules:
“So you got the knowledge is there, it’s just pulling it out and having the strength from each other to use each other effectively bounce of each other.”
Traditionally this Fda has had small cohorts of a maximum of 20 students and this, according to students, had been advantageous in developing their socio-emotional intelligence. In these small groups they were able to get to know their peers and
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learning occurred in a more targeted small environment where they could build effective relationships with others as well as with the lecturer.“You become more sociable and less egocentric, I think that you actually pick up some of your social skills from your peers and the people around” (Alex)
To them, this was a major advantage in developing their socio-emotional
intelligence as they were able to express themselves in an environment where they were aware that they were safe and would not be judged. This may not be possible to replicate in all teaching situations within universities; however, it does present the possibility of perhaps developing a group base as there is a need for students to feel that they belong.
From the literature, it is known that nurturing effective relationships within a learning environment reduces stress and developing friendships can even influence
students’ success in achieving their goals (Hastings and Cohn 2015). The reason for this may be that social connections can influence greatly our sense of happiness and meaningful experiences. Concurring with this, Schreiner (2015, p. 11) asserts that “thriving in college incorporates healthy relationships and interactions with others.” And it is clear that to these students developing social connectedness was an important aspect of their university experience as it helped them to succeed.
What is more, Stretcher Sigmar et al. (2012, p. 312) discuss the importance of incorporating socio-emotional intelligence training asserting that “modelling and experiencing social behaviour are essential in learning EI [emotional intelligence].” They provide concrete examples of how to do so with activities related to
experiential learning such as role playing and team work. This concurs with the students’ views regarding how they feel they have developed their socio-emotional intelligence within the classroom.
Whilst Strercher Sigmar et al.’s (2012) work is specific to business communication students, and their examples would not be applicable to students, the essence of what they developed could be applied to the students’ training opportunities, as they take into account main areas of socio-emotional intelligence such as self- awareness, motivation, empathy and handling emotions amongst others, which could be applicable to any training programme. Furthermore, they discuss the importance of developing a social vocabulary, something that in my own research
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appeared to be an important aspect as previously stated. Nevertheless, to develop meaningful activities relevant to students, it is important that the lecturers are well informed and knowledgeable in the subject.A further area discussed by some of the students regarding their social learning experiences was an engagement with online communities. Some of them had created online spaces in order to support each other and to exchange knowledge.
For instance, Spencer recounted how they:
“built up like a mini community within the students within the room so that was really good because you didn’t feel on your own so I think where it sometimes you feel like you sort of trying to swim against the current… But you’re all on it together so you could always cheer each other on or send each other a message or you know its 3 o clock and I’m still trying to do my referencing (laughs).”
Consequently, using virtual spaces to continue learning within a social context were sought, although these were student initiated. Louis (2015, p. 119) asserts that it is imperative to build learning communities outside of the classroom in order to provide an “interactive environment that challenges students to construct knowledge collaboratively.” By students creating their own online community to share ideas and discuss issues, they took the initiative to develop their own learning community which to them made their learning journey much more meaningful.
Therefore, it might be that in a digital world these types of online learning communities are important to further support students in developing their
knowledge and understanding and in turn provide opportunities to develop socio- emotional intelligence, as they can practice social skills albeit in a different manner. Nevertheless, these spaces should not replace face to face meetings and the social aspect of learning within a university environment as retracting from real social situations can cause isolation (Shushok Jr and Kidd 2015).