Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Situations rely on the concrete manifestations of abstractions (Lave and Wenger,
1991). “Theories of situated activity do not separate action, thought, feeling, and value
[from] ... the meaningful activity” (Lave, 2009, p. 202). Illeris (2007) classified situated
learning as a premier example of interactive learning; this aligns with Dewey (1938) who
stated “the conceptions of situation and of interaction are inseparable from each other.
An experience is always what it is because of a transaction taking place between an
individual and what, at the time, constitutes his environment” (Dewey, 1938, p. 43). The
interactive learning complements cognitive learning (Piaget and Kolb) and incentive
(Illeris, 2007) learning (to include emotional learning, such as the EI theorists –
especially, Bar-On (1997, 2000), Goleman (1995, 1998), Mayer & Salovey (1990 et.
seq.), and Nelson & Low (2011)).
The review of experiential and situated learning theories, respectively, will now
be considered in tandem and for the purpose of reviewing scholarly work associating EI
with these theories. That discussion occurs in the next section. To frame that discussion,
Figure 2.11 draws on Illeris (2007) and illustrates the placement of adult learning and EI
theorists whom the present study emphasizes. In so doing, it also demonstrates the
diverse perspectives and relative placement of these theorists in the cognitive, incentive,
and interaction learning domains.