Abstract:
Given the active exploration of online communication, the emotional culture of teachers constitutes a professional resource to efficiently solve the problems generated by internet addiction among school students. It is ascertained that the excessive use of internet has a negative impact on their psychological health. Research in the field of psychology and pedagogy demonstrates that the emotional problems of the students with a high degree of internet addiction affect their communicative interactions, causing fear and isolation, proneness to anxiety, low effectiveness and adaptation deficiencies. From the students’ point of view, however, the internet has radically and irreversibly changed the way of life, increasing their well-being. For most of them, the internet represents a means of information, an undeniable opportunity for social connection and self-education, freedom from shyness and paralyzing inhibitions. The critical analysis of the current approaches to teachers’ emotional culture, developed as a result of the change in education paradigms, and as a result of the expansion of teachers’ professional roles, records the emergence of new meanings of the phenomenon in question. In the context of students’ internet addiction, affirming the emotional culture of teachers as a model for the development of social skills in students could be a strategic solution for ensuring a harmonious and stimulating climate for effective communication in the educational process. The high level of pedagogical culture, reflected in the quality of professional skills, including the socio-affective skills, enhances the emotional work potential of teachers. From this perspective, promoting the values of social culture by empowering social learning in the educational environment favors the active socialization of students. For these reasons, the continuous professional development of teachers’ emotional culture is indisputably important.
