Center for Emotional Intelligence – Kotebe University of Education

Mobile: +251904579519

Email: almaw.kifle@kue.edu.et

Description of the Center

Center for Emotional Intelligence It is one of the Institutes introduced across the board by the Mistry of Education in its reform of 2015 E.C. to restructure the Higher Learning Institutions of the country. It is the first of its kind in the university and this is the first 5-Years Strategic Plan prepared to be implemented in the coming five years.

Meaning, Significant, Scope and History of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence as a term didn’t come into our vernacular until around 1990. Despite being a relatively new term, interest in the concept has grown tremendously since then. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened; others claim it’s an inborn characteristic.

Early Growth: As early as the 1930s, psychologist Edward Thorndike described the concept of “social intelligence” as the ability to get along with other people. During the 1940s, psychologist David Wechsler proposed that different effective components of intelligence could play an important role in how successful people are in life.

Later Developments: The 1950s saw the rise of the school of thought known as humanistic psychology, and thinkers such as Abraham Maslow focused greater attention on the different ways that people could build emotional strength.

Another important concept to emerge in the development of emotional intelligence was the notion of multiple intelligences. This concept was put forth in the mid-1970s by Howard Gardner, introducing the idea that intelligence was more than just a single, general ability.

The Emergence of Emotional Intelligence; It was not until 1985 that the term “emotional intelligence” was first used in a doctoral dissertation by Wayne Payne. In 1987, an article published in Mensa Magazine, by Keith Beasley uses the term “emotional quotient.”

In 1990, psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer published their landmark article, “Emotional Intelligence,” in the journal Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. They defined emotional intelligence as “the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.”

In 1995, the concept of emotional intelligence was popularized after the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.” The topic of emotional intelligence has continued to capture the public interest since and has become important in fields outside of psychology including education and business.

Definition: Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, interpret, demonstrate, control, evaluate, and use emotions to communicate with and relate to others effectively and constructively. Some experts suggest that emotional intelligence is more important than IQ for success in life.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, interpret, demonstrate, control, and use emotions to communicate with and relate to others effectively and constructively. This ability to express and control emotions is essential, but so is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others.

Signs of Emotional Intelligence

Some key signs and examples of emotional intelligence include an ability to identify and describe what people are feeling, an awareness of personal strengths and limitations, self-confidence and self-acceptance, the ability to let go of mistakes, an ability to accept and embrace change, a strong sense of curiosity, particularly about other people, feelings of empathy and concern for others, showing sensitivity to the feelings of other people, accepting responsibility for mistakes and the ability to manage emotions in difficult situations.

Advancing the University Plan

The Institute of Emotional Intelligence is committing to a strategic plan that furthers and aligns with the overarching goal and key initiatives of the University Plan. Because Kotebe University of Education strives to be one of the leading centers of Excellence in Education by the year, 2025, and become the choice of students from every region to benefit from its high performance in terms of quality of education and standard service delivery, better infrastructure, and abundant resources as stated by the guiding framework of the Ministry of Education.

How do we get there?

Institutional readiness: By year, 2019 the Institute of Emotional Intelligence will have a better experience and better performance both in community service and compose-based activities.
Theme work and better working environments of the university: so that students learn and practice a healthy lifestyle and instructors work hard to improve the success of their students. As a result, they will be supported by qualified staff, engage in learning, connected to the community; challenged academically, and prepared for future success. In addition to these, environments will be physically and emotionally safe; staff socially and emotionally intelligent, better opportunities. By the year 2019, the graduation rate for students will increase, and research, teaching, and community service will increase. By the year 2019, the number of students will double per program due to improved academic standards. Therefore the institute focuses to support the university Plan by working on the emotional intelligence of the staff, students, and the community to increase perforce, flexibility, and commitment to build a peaceful, interactive, and productive culture and environment.
Guiding Framework

Efficiency is a guiding framework of the university in general and the institution specifically. It is believed that the institution of Emotional Intelligence is a critical component of fulfilling the vision of the university Plan. The buildings, building infrastructure and strategic management of the university assets and people directly impacts the learning environment, student experience, and public perception of the university. In this regard, the institute is committed to excellence and the most efficient operation. To progress successfully, each of us must step forward to accomplish the goals and objectives that have been strategically planned and aligned to move us forward. The five bold steps in the guiding framework describe the areas where we will make significant progress over the next five years. They are sold foundation, employee commitment, quality service delivery, theme leadership, and showing impact.

Strategic and Operational Goals

The Institute Strategic Plan outlines both strategic and operational goals that address the most relevant opportunities and challenges we foresee over the next 5 years. The strategic goals represent innovative, future-oriented, and department-wide initiatives that will require employees at all levels across the university to work jointly towards a common goal. Strategic goals take us to the next level through a planned and forward-thinking strategy. The operational goals support the strategic goals within each of the Divisions. Operational goals focus on the Division plans needed to optimize the performance of the operations and reach our objectives over the next 5 years. Both strategic and operational goals account for the work to be performed over the next 5 years. This will require that every person, team, college, faculty, department, directorate and Division perform their functions to the best of their ability, and then go beyond. We need to significantly improve what we do and how we do it. Therefore, the Institute of Emotional Intelligence sets the following five activity-based goal for the following five years.

Goal 1. Work to enhance leadership quality: Emotional intelligence allows us to be a more effective leader.
Goal 2. Improving Communication: Understanding how others are feeling allows us to communicate with them better.
Goal 3. Promote Self-knowledge: Being more aware of what we are feeling allows us to understand yourself more deeply.
Goal 4. Promoting Self-control: Being aware of your emotions also allows us to develop your self-control abilities.
Goal 5. Train in Stress management: Managing your emotions effectively allows us to exert greater control in situations marked by stress or conflict.
Goal 6. Working with and establishing links with other organizations to get support.
Goal 7. Building team spirit and collaborative approach for common goals.
Goal 8. Building capacity of workers in emotional intelligence
Goal 9. Creating campus-wide network and choosing representatives
Goal 10. Organizing Trainings and inviting motivational speakers

Our Vision

Institute of Emotional Intelligence is inspired by a vision that is aligned with the mission and vision of promoting a high emotional intelligence personality. Simple and straightforward, the Vision is to provide a high-quality learning environment for every student, creating a good working environment for workers and a conducive environment for community engagement. The vision provides clarity around the direction and long-term strategy that emotional intelligence will employ.

Our Mission

Provide a high quality learning, teaching, researching and working environment for all students and staff
We deliver high quality customer service both internally and externally
We promote operations that are environmentally and economically efficient, effective and sustainable.
We focus on continuous professional development of our staff at all levels

We believe that the Institute of Emotional Intelligence should align with the shared core values of the university. We will strive to live these values and incorporate them into all that we do.