Development of emotional intelligence through dramatisation

Abstract

This study analysed the effects of a dramatisation intervention as physical education (PE) content in primary education on emotional intelligence. The management of our emotions and of our relationships with others are key socialisation and intervention tools in the education setting. PE is ideal for the development of these skills since it provides specific contents that could be related to an improvement in self-awareness, expression and communication. The purpose of this intervention was to develop expressive, communicative and critical skills through different dramatisation resources. In order to analyse the effects of this proposal, a quasi-experimental study was designed providing for an analysis between two groups (control and experimental) from an intentional sample of 294 students (141 boys and 153 girls). An emotional intelligence questionnaire for children was administered to the subjects as a pre-test and post-test to evaluate the influence of a dramatisation programme. The SPSS-22 statistical package was used to perform a descriptive analysis of the pre-test-posttest data on the emotional intelligence factors, to wit emotional expressiveness, self-control, motivation, self-awareness and social skills. The Shapiro-Wilk test was applied to determine normality. The differences between pre- and post-intervention were determined with Student’s t-test for related samples. Following the data analysis, it may be asserted that dramatisation gave rise to improvements in certain emotional intelligence factors in female students and more notably in male students.