ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 7 No 2 March 2016 282 The Effects of Philosophical Stories on Emotional Intelligence and Educational Progress of Students in Science Lessons Zainab Abbasi 1 Ali Akbar Ajam* 2 1 Department of education, College of education, Islamic Azad University, Ghaenat branch, Ghaenat, Iran 2 Assistant Professor of curriculum, Department of Educational Sciences, Payame Noor University, Iran *Corresponding author: Ali Akbar Ajam, Email:aliakbarajam1387@gmail.com Doi:10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n2p282 Abstract The present study aims to study the effects of philosophical stories on emotional intelligence and educational progress in science lessons among students of second grade who are studying in Shahid schools of Birjand City. The present study is of semi-experimental type and its statistical population includes all elementary students of Birjand City. In the present study, the two-stage cluster sampling is used. Among all elementary schools, the Shahid schools were selected out of which the second grader are included in the statistical population. Out of the statistical population 50 students are randomly assigned to test group (25 students) and control group (25 students). The instruments of data collection in the present study are Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT, 1998) and researcher’s questionnaire of educational progress. The results are analyzed through SPSS Software (version.19) and covariance analysis. The results show that philosophical stories significantly contribute to improved emotional intelligence and educational progress in science lessons among students of second grade who are studying in Shahid schools of Birjand City. Therefore, one may state that the usage of philosophical stories make the students interested in education and improves their educational condition. In addition, the teachers could increase the students’ emotional intelligence and educational progress. Keywords: educational progress, philosophical stories, students, emotional intelligence. Introduction 1. The significance of thinking and wisdom of humankind is so high that the mission of prophets is helping humans to know better and to correct and reinforce their ability of thinking. The training and education in their common denotations refer to wisdom. That is why the most common application of training and education could be regarded as nurturing of thinking (Akbari, 2013). One of the significant objectives of most of educational systems is thinking and improvement of ability to think (Safai Moghadam, 2007). The children need to understand the world and they are natural curious about the stimuli around themselves. To attribute significance to the world, they need information about their experiences, process them and to which they respond (Marashi, 2007). Sharp (1993) believes that because children enjoy stories, they could be used to encourage the children to think, ask question, improve their educational progress and emotional intelligence, and create motivation. One of the ways of fostering thinking raised within the past few decades is teaching philosophy to children based on the objective of teaching them the ways of thinking, reasoning and problem solving. Philosophy for children is the most practical philosophical tendency that responds to the essential and global requirement. That is why it is commonly welcomed and public welcome of philosophy for children led to promotion of its educational courses (Ghara Melki, 2006). Literature Review 2. Lipman (1993) pointed to a distinctive conception of philosophy and a new perception of ability of children, objectives, methods and content for teaching of thinking. He tried to develop certain philosophical constructs so as to solve the problems of children with problems of teaching and memory-reinforcing training (Khodayar Mohebbi,, 1998: 29). In the philosophy course for children, significant objectives are followed and deep values are intended among which one could point to independent thinking, independent judgment, pride in personal conceptions, pride to possess individual perspective, scientific humility, deeper apprehension, order and respect for others (Naji, 2009: 130). On one hand, the