The Identification of Emotional Intelligence Skills in Higher Education Students with WebQDA

Abstract

It is known that academic performance is not correlated with the way people understand and deal with their own emotions and other peoples’ emotions. Active methodologies allow students to be constantly involved in the learning process and thus allow Higher Education students to cognitively develop Emotional Intelligence (EI). This study is guided by the following research question: what are the learning strategies for developing EI skills in Higher Education students? This is a qualitative study and two focus groups were held with two institutions of Public and Private Higher Education, in which 10 students and 4 Professors participated. The content of the interviews was analyzed using the qualitative analysis software webQDA®. One concludes that the active methodologies, Problem Based Learning and Inverted Classroom, can contribute to develop EI skills in Higher Education students, as they enable mental skills such as reasoning and problem solving, from the perception and knowledge of emotion patterns.