Enhancing Emotional Intelligence among Middle School Students:An Action Research

Recent research suggests that the role of emotional intelligence may be more important than cognitive intelligence because emotions are helpful in energizing and directing human behavior. It has even been stated that 80 percent of a person's success relies on emotional intelligence; whereas, the role of IQ is only about 20 percent. Studies have indicated that EI of an individual can be enhanced using special instructions. Furthermore, some researchers point to the fact that school children can be the maximum beneficiaries of such programs. The present study aims to develop a suitable instructional material for school children. A pretest-posttest design was chosen, with one experimental and one control group of middle school students, both boys and girls. Test results were compared with the help of 't' test. The results of the study revealed a significant difference between the pretest-posttest scores, as a result of instructional material. It was found that post test scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than control group. However, no significant difference in the post test scores of girls and boys was observed.