I have been privileged to have worked and researched in the field of adolescent and childrens’ Emotional Intelligence (EI) for over ten years with Swinburne University and ‘Aristotle’. As educators, having the ability to gain insight into our students’ EI is incredibly valuable in understanding and supporting our students. Even more powerful is knowing that through Aristotle’s programs, we can develop our students’ EI through evidence-based research, as we seek to empower our young men and women with confidence and resilience for the future.

Our partnership with Swinburne has provided teachers with a rich set of resources and generous support that has enabled a structured, informed approach to developing EI in our students.

Aristotle EI has allowed students to learn more about their emotions in a safe, comfortable environment. They develop skills that encourage them to be more self-aware and considerate of those around them. It offers the opportunity for students to develop an emotional tool kit that they can draw upon when adolescent mile stones are reached and experience them with a positive mindset.

Our students’ emotional vocabulary has substantially increased and students are more confident to express their feelings in a meaningful way. The course allowed students to engage in discussions based on real life dilemmas and to problem solve in order to reach positive outcomes. Students are more self-aware, understanding how their behaviours can impact on others, while also being more capable of reading others emotions and moods.

My students are more articulate in their discussions about goal setting and tackling problems head on, and have become more confident in discussing their feelings in challenging situations. The program has allowed us to pin point areas of Emotional Intelligence that individual students need to work on, and it has also given us insight into why students express certain behaviours.

Tamborine Mountain State School has been using the Emotional Intelligence Programs from Swinburne University for four years.  The programs are extremely well structured and sequentially teach the critical skills of emotional recognition and expression, understanding the emotions of others, emotional reasoning and emotional management and control.  We have noticed our students are transferring the skills they have learned in their lessons into everyday life and are using more self-regulation strategies to calm down and solve their problems.

Our school feels extremely privileged to have a partnership with Swinburne University.  The supporting staff from the University are responsive to feedback about the program and excited to hear the stories of our school’s progress using their programs.   10 out of 10 for the programs and 10 out of 10 for the positive impact it has with our students.