Open Science Journal of Education
2014; 2(4): 50-55
Published online September 30, 2014 (http://www.openscienceonline.com/journal/edu)
The importance of animation to enhance children’s
emotional intelligence
Nor Aizal Akmal Binti Rohaizad*, Azlina Binti Mohd Kosnin
Faculty of Education, University of Technology Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Email address
[email protected] (N. A. A. B. Rohaizad), [email protected] (A. B. M. Kosnin)
To cite this article
Nor Aizal Akmal Binti Rohaizad, Azlina Binti Mohd Kosnin. The Importance of Animation to Enhance Children’s Emotional
Intelligence. Open Science Journal of Education. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2014, pp. 50-55.
Abstract
Various challenges and disturbances will be encountered to educate children in the present age. Educating children are not
only giving enough food and education, but also should emphasize in terms of their emotional development. This is
because of too emphasis given only on the intellectual intelligence aspects regardless of children's feelings will leave a
negative impact on their emotional development. The emotional intelligence element should be taught to children because
the world nowadays had become more complex in patterns of human social relations that much give negative influence
that can be seen through the mass media and television. Due to this phenomenon changes, has led the children easy
irritability and aggressive. This paper will discuss the conceptual of emotional intelligence which instilled in preschool
children. This paper also discusses the problems faced by pre-school teachers in the implementation of teaching and
learning of emotional intelligence at preschoolers’ level. Besides, this paper also describes the importance of animation in
teaching and learning of emotional intelligence at preschoolers’ level. The existing teaching aids in the teaching and
learning of emotional intelligence in the preschool is very limited. This had caused the teachers problematical in teaching
to deliver this element to the children. Limitation of teaching aids of emotional intelligence had caused the teachers put this
element as a side subject only infused with any other subject that are important in teaching and learning process. However,
this element is very important in the development and formation of a stable children emotional in order to produce
individuals who can and able to control and manage emotions well and will be able to avoid the temptations of the things
that should not be happened as a result of failure to control his emotions when faced with the pressures experienced in life.
Keywords
Emotional intelligence, Preschooler
1. Introduction
Emotional intelligence is the capacity of the emotions and
the ability to use emotions to enhance thinking. It involves
the ability to detect emotion accurately, using emotion as
mindset improvement, understand emotions and emotional
knowledge and the ability to regulate emotions as a trigger
for the development of emotional intelligence [21].
Emotional intelligence has been defined as the ability to
control, understand and use emotions to guide the way we
think and act [21]. This ability could significantly influence
all decisions and acts done by a person. Mayer and Salovey
have developed the concept of emotional intelligence to
explain the importance of emotions in life. They defined
emotional intelligence as the ability to identify one’s own
and other people’s emotions as well as the ability to control
and regulate one’s emotions [21].
Research in the area of emotional intelligence has found
significant findings relating the construct with various
positive outcomes such as one’s health and well-being,
adaptability to new life situation and better mental health,
and higher mental abilities and positive personality
attributes.
Development of healthy emotional is necessary for the
children to achieve success in learning process. A mastering
in emotional skill is a fundamental to the learning and
development of the children which is enhance in the
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Nor Aizal Akmal Binti Rohaizad and Azlina Binti Mohd Kosnin: The Importance of Animation to
Enhance Children’s Emotional Intelligence
emotional development component. Self-confidence,
self-reliance and a positive attitude towards education can be
built through the development of the child's emotional health.
This is because they are able to understand and manage
emotions and able to achieve emotional intelligence. Social
skills in a multicultural and friendly environment can be
constructed if the students able to manage the emotions
themselves where they can understand the emotions, needs,
and to respect the views of others [18].
2. Teaching and Learning of
Emotional Intelligence at
Preschool in Malaysia
Individuals who are not only successful in academics or
career but also successful and able to live more orderly and
peacefully are those who have an emotional intelligence.
The government also emphasizes the importance of
emotional intelligence shown in the National Education
Philosophy (Philosophy of Education) in which the
government is trying to create a balanced and harmonious
human being physically, emotionally, spiritually,
intellectually and socially to produce people who are
knowledgeable, competent, honorable, responsible and
capable of achieving well-being. Through the National
Education Philosophy (Philosophy of Education) clearly
shows that the government is giving serious attention to the
emotional elements in order to create a stable development
of individual emotions [18].
Ministry of Education (MOE) has also put the target
through the [18], which seeks to develop the potential of
children at the of age four to six years in the physical,
emotional, spiritual, intellectual and social. The aim is to
equip individuals with the skills, confidence and positive
self-concept so that they will be succeed in the existing
environment and be ready to address the challenges and
responsibilities in school soon. So, the Ministry of
Education (MOE) also gives attention and care with respect
to the element of emotion.
Fig 1. Subject in Preschool Standards Curriculum.
Open Science Journal of Education 2014; 2(4): 50-55
Infusion of element of emotion contained in the objectives
of the National Pre-School Curriculum Standard (NPCS) is
also intended to produce children who grow up with a
positive self-concept, dare to try, has the emotional maturity,
respect for the feelings and rights of others and have high
confidence. An individual can easily corporate with others
when they have the emotional maturity and in the same time,
they are able to express their views and feelings without
hurting the feelings of others. Thus, a positive relationship
can be formed with good no matter whether between adults
or peers [18].
Based on what has been discussed above, the
development of each individual is important infused with
elements of emotional intelligence. Elements of emotional
intelligence in the preschool are taught under the socio
emotional subject. Figure 1 below shows that the socio
emotional subject is also importance for pre-school and it is
same important with other subject such as Physical and
Aesthetics subject, Spirituality, Attitudes and Values subject,
Literacy Science and Technology subject, Humanities
subject and last Communication subject. Based on Figure
1.1 as discussed earlier, an element of emotional intelligence
is important as other subject but its implementation is not
weighing if comparing with other subject. Preschool
children performed poorly in capturing elements of
emotional intelligence contained under the socio emotional
subject and from the interviews conducted with the
preschool teachers in the schools, according to them
elements of emotional intelligence was used as an ancillary
subject only to be combined with other subject which may
be deemed necessary such as science and technology subject,
communications subject and so on [28]. To continue the life,
it is important for individual to mastery an element of
emotional intelligence as a guide to them in making the right
decision in action [22].
Teachers find it difficult to carry out teaching and learning
of emotional intelligence to children due to lack of teaching
aids or specific learning module which well-planned and
systematic base on syllabus to facilitate their teaching.
Children difficult to understand the information received,
since the process of teaching and learning elements of
emotional intelligence just run only by talk and talk and this
reduces children interest in learning and attention in class.
According to [32], children who are at the age between
four to six years still cannot afford to think about abstract
things. Thus, in every process of teaching and learning is not
enough conducted just by talk and talk but require a concrete
material which can show to children so that children can
easily imagine it. Piaget adds that, children at this stage are
pre-operation which is undergoing the process of transition
to the next stage of concrete operations between the ages of
seven to 12 years. At this point, the children cannot think
abstractly yet, and they are unable to reflect the process of
transformation, even the inverse operation and the
conservation concept [27].
The thought of a child at this point is egocentric and only
52
think that the perception of others is similar to their views
[34] and the children at this stage can only think of a specific
instance to a specific instance only known as transductive
thinking. They cannot think of a deductive (from general to
specific examples) or inductively (from specific examples to
general). For them, all objects have souls and children
cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Therefore, elements of emotional intelligence should be
taught explicitly, systematicly and structurally because
according to [2], children learning process must be
meaningful. Meaningful learning is a process of linking new
information to the relevant concepts in the cognitive
structure such as facts, concepts, and generalizations that
have been studied previously. In addition, meaningful
learning is a sense of structure which is already owned by a
children who is going through a learning process to link with
the new information learned.
Meaningful learning occurs when children are able to link
a new phenomenon to their knowledge and the subject
matter must be appropriate and relevant to their cognitive
structure. Therefore, module is one example of a suitable
material that can serve as mediation to help children learn
new things through appropriate activities and more
structured that can be done by children to relate new
information learned with the previously learned.
3. The Importance of Emotional
Intelligence for Children
Preschool children must be exposed to the emotion at
early age. This is because at this stage, children who
between aged three to six years are identified as fast learner
and can quickly proceed to do something that they are
interested to, and they are also very sensitive to whether
something is right or wrong [8]. At the preschool level, this
is an appropriate time to instilled emotional knowledge on
children because they can easily to construct a negative
attitude when they feeling awkward and uneasy feelings in
the child's behavior will arise when they are laughed at, if
they are doing something wrong [8]. According to Mohd
Azhar (2004), if this situation persists to adulthood, it will
create an individual which failed to manage life properly.
This is because they are not been able to navigate a good
feelings or emotions when they are facing with trials or
problems due to the growth of weak emotions.
Social spirit is very important in mental and emotional
development of children [32], [33], the children will suffer
from movement or displacement of the egocentric to the
socio centric when reaching a certain period. During this
period, the children will experience a change from the
failure to understand the views of others to the ability to
understand the different views of others when constantly
interacting with the community.
According to [10], emotional intelligence is important to
the children because it’s including a regulation skills, the
53
Nor Aizal Akmal Binti Rohaizad and Azlina Binti Mohd Kosnin: The Importance of Animation to
Enhance Children’s Emotional Intelligence
promotion of social behavior and also positive learning
behaviors. Emotional intelligence is important and
fundamental to the success of a preschool environment [10],
[34]. Children who have good emotional intelligence are
able to build an advance learning environment as such as to
follow instructions, pay attention and listen, able to solve a
problem and the patient [6].
According to [7], [31], children are able to apply
emotional intelligence in the classroom and able to perform
better on test or in any form of other academic achievement.
From the study done by [36], emotional intelligence instilled
in children allows them to create good behaviors which
bring a good result in learning process and of course to
achieve better results in academic achievement. The
findings of previous studies show that there are many
relationships between emotional intelligence and future
educational success [10], [34]. Early childhood development
is the best time to infuse with elements of emotional
intelligence in order to produce individuals who are
successful in the future.
Mastery of emotional intelligence allows individuals to
understand the emotional himself which enable them to
identify the reasons that evoke feelings and able to
distinguish between the feelings and rational actions [26].
According to [26], an individual is easy to know what can
evokes feelings and can distinguish between emotions and
rational actions when self emotional identified.
Therefore, children need to be applied to an element of
emotional intelligence from the beginning to prevent them
from experiencing any problems when entering primary
school later. [18] states that acts like a fight and hurt others
occur due to the child's emotional development was
interrupted because of the less stable and robust emotionally
growth. Unstable emotional growth since childhood will
produce individuals who failed to control his emotions when
facing any stress. [35] found that the expression of Aristotle
states that "Everyone can get angry - that is easy. But to be
angry at the right person, at the right level, at the right time,
with the right purpose and in the right way - this is not easy”.
So, the emotional intelligence element is important to
instilled in the individual self since they are childhood, so
when they are grow up afterwards they can be a person who
can control their anger with the pace and the right time .
4. The Importance of Animation
Based on the problems identified, preschool teachers in
the study area need an appropriate module that can be used
as a guide in the teaching and learning of emotional
intelligence. In the [27] study found that the learning module
is a package which is designed with a well-planned, rigorous
and systematic approach based on the syllabus to assist
teachers through in teaching and learning process with
smoothly. Module is an important element in delivering
information to students [29]. Each of the concepts and facts
presented is beneficial to students because of unique and
interesting presentation [3].
Modules produced will be aided with an animation
because according to [1] findings of his study showed the
use of an animation is an effective way to attract attention
and be able to provide concrete information on the
movement and change of the object over time and this can
reduce the level of abstract ideas. Learning process more
interesting and fun by providing additional information in
two important attributes that is move and trajectory than
static graphics. Aminordin added again, an animation is a
merger between graphic and text presentation in which they
can strengthen memory as using 'learning by seeing'. [1]
findings was also supported by a study conducted by [12]
which shows that cartoon animated graphics used in the
painting can deliver the funny message or jokes that enable
students to recall events displayed as light reading material
and suitable for all ages of students.
Modules assisted with an animation aims to provide
learning environment of emotional intelligent more fun and
be able to draw students' attention for a longer fulcrum in
learning dynamic way compare static. In the same period
was also able to increase student motivation for learning
phase and stimulate their thinking more memorable [17].
According [17], with an animation can attract students'
attention easily and delivery message more appropriate. The
use of animation in teaching and learning will be able to
convey complex concepts in a visual and dynamic, and this
allows the process to make connections or docking more
easily mapped in mind onwards pupils can improve their
understanding of the process.
According to [17], the use of animation will facilitate
explanation of a concept or demonstrate a skill and this
enables children to utilize more senses in the process of
gathering information. Jamalludin and Zaidatun added again,
animation is able to reduce the cognitive load of students in
receipt of a lesson content or message presented by the
teachers.
5. Conclusion
From what has been discussed above, clearly shows that
individuals who want to succeed in life depends not only on
intellectual wits but also need emotional stability. Good
emotional control is very important when a person is in a
stressful situation. This is because of failure to control his
emotions will cause a person to act out of control. They are
still sane, but due to the lack of emotional intelligence
causes those to take a drastic action to escape from problems
incurred.
Thus, emotional intelligence should be instilled in
children so that they can grow up with emotionally stable
growth which is always patient, calm and able to think
rationally when faced with tense situations and thus can
succeed in life. To achieve the aims, teaching and learning of
emotional intelligence should be conducted in a better
systematic and structured such as a reorganization of the
module in accordance with the syllabus content, it will really
make the process of teaching and learning to be effective
Open Science Journal of Education 2014; 2(4): 50-55
with fun activities.
Using a module aided with an animation is an alternative
for the teachers as a teaching tool to create an active teaching
and learning environment and enabling learning objectives
are achieved and also be able to save the teaching and
learning time for teachers and students. An animation in the
module can provide a concrete material that can serve as a
catalyst for the success of teaching and learning and in the
same time can reinforce children to understand the subject of
study easily.
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