Abstract:

In recent decades, there has been increasing focus on the role of formal education in empowering students’ social and moral development. A wealth of research evidence has shown that helping students to develop their social and emotional competencies can encourage students’ personal growth and can also yield benefits including increased student engagement and decreased levels of drop-out. However, although the benefits of focusing on student's social and emotional development have been demonstrated in numerous studies, to date, there has been no attempt to systematically infuse social skills development into third level curricula. This presentation will outline a vision as to how this might be achieved and the benefits of doing so. Specifically, a reformulated version of the European Qualifications Framework will be presented that makes explicit reference to students' social skills development, as at present this framework focuses almost exclusively on cognitive skills development. Additionally, suggestions will be made as to how students and educators might be supported to enable them to develop their social skills. The overall aim of the presentation will be to outline a vision as to the value of creating emotionally intelligent colleges.

Keywords:

Emotional intelligence, student support, curriculum design, social skills development, third level.