Emotional intelligence as addressed in Iranian high school textbooks

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Abstract

Given the importance of emotions and emotional intelligence as described in Barron's theory, it would be appropriate to ask if the Iranian text books pay attention to this topic. To assess the extent of such coverage, a sample of first year high school text books was selected and their contents analyzed. The sample included Farsi Literature, Social Studies, Religion and Life, and Life Skills text books. Using Barron's 15 components of emotional intelligence, both the educational objectives and contents of these books were analyzed. Results show that observed objectives are not compatible with the development of emotional intelligence as the appearance of its different components in the studied text books is very insignificant. Nevertheless, the self awareness, problem solving, accountability, and relativity components were covered in all four text books.

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