Emotional and cognitive education as a pillar of health promotion and education: a Scoping review

Abstract

Emotional education at school works as a development strategy for students and teachers to better manage their emotions. Cognitive education provides a crucial contribution to a better understanding of brain functioning, becoming a very useful tool to improve the quality and efficiency of the teaching-learning process. The general objective of this work was to analyse the point of view of different authors on the importance of emotional education and cognitive stimulation for health promotion. A qualitative methodology was followed and as a data collection technique a bibliographic research was carried out, using the keywords Emotional Education, Cognitive Education and Health Promotion. The search was conducted in several databases, namely scientific journals, university repositories, specific websites for the topic and researchers’ platforms. Subsequently, a Scoping Review was conducted based on the principles recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Two independent reviewers analysed the relevance of the articles, extracted and synthesised the data. After the selection, a corpus of analysis was composed of thirty studies. From the studies found, we concluded that the students’ involvement in knowledge acquisition and retention is essential, as well as the adoption of strategies that clearly specify the importance and purpose of learning, providing children with the development of emotional and cognitive skills, namely the use of assertive communication, a quiet classroom environment, with adequate light, temperature and decoration for well-being. The adoption of healthy habits such as food, arts and physical activity benefits physical, emotional and mental well-being. It was concluded that emotional and cognitive education is a powerful tool for health promotion, development of autonomy, self-control and quality of life for children and their communities.