Communication and Recognition of Emotions and Facial expressions of Primary School Students, with and without Covid-19 Masks; A Study in China and ItalyAbstract: This study aimed at giving voice to Primary School students from China and Italy about their expression and recognition of emotions. Participants were 46 Italian students and 99 Chinese students, aged 7 to 10 years, who worked in pairs as model or drawer. The model demonstrated a facial expression of emotion, with or without a Covid-19 Mask. The drawer guessed the emotion that the model wanted to express, without prior enquiry, and drew and wrote it on a paper. The model then wrote the emotions that they really wanted to express through their facial expression, on the same piece (Preprint)

BACKGROUND 1. Introduction Recognising and responding appropriately to emotions is a widespread issue among primary school pupils. Social-emotional actions involve interactions that enable children to explore the world, understand themselves and build relationships with others. Three years of global Covid-19 epidemic (c.2020-2023) and use of masks have highlighted this issue further. Darwin (1872) extensively explored the relationship between facial expressions and emotions in both humans and animals, providing valuable insights into the importance of facial expressions in the expression and understanding of emotions. inspired by this, Ekman defined the primary emotions as Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Joy, Fear, and Surprise (Ekman, 1972), With this theory Ekman became a pioneer in recognizing emotions by emphasizing facial expressions. Witkin (1974) and Ross (1974) were the first to tackle education in the emotional and sentimental fields with solid theoretical foundations, proposing a model of the development of feelings parallel to that of Piaget's sequential model of cognitive development. They supported the parallelism between rational and emotional intelligence so that it can be thought that if cognitive development follows a learning process, emotional development follows a parallel process of awareness and socialization. Their work was taken up and deepened by Dobson and Jackson (1982), who created and tested an operational model based on Witkin's theories. The ideas were then developed in a more contemporary key in Goleman's (1995) concept of "emotional intelligence" (EI). Research has consistently shown that individuals with high emotional intelligence are better equipped to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as navigate interpersonal relationships effectively. In academic and professional settings, EI is associated with better leadership skills, higher job performance, and improved overall well-being (Goleman, 1995). A meta-analysis by Joseph and Newman (2010) found that emotional intelligence is an important factor in job performance, especially in jobs that require high levels of social interaction. Another study by Mavroveli, Petrides, Rieffe, and Bakker (2007) found that children with higher emotional intelligence have better social relations and fewer mental health problems. In 1994, a committed group of people came together to develop a field that would address the “missing piece” in education and support the “whole child” into practice. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) was created to make evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) an integral part of education from preschool through high school (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; 2005; Devaney, O’Brien, Keister, Resnik, & Weissberg, 2006). The didactic approach of this study was exemplified by the Big Five Model theory of CASEL, a model of skill development: 1. Self-awareness (achievement orientation, responsibility, self-control, persistence) 2. Self-management (stress resistance, optimism, emotional control) 3. Relationship skills (empathy, trust, cooperation) 4. Social awareness (curiosity, tolerance, creativity) 5. Responsible decision-making (sociability, assertiveness, energy) A study of emotion expression can also be a study of the moral, cultural, and political life of a people and yield anthropological knowledge about the social structure and cultural values that are reproduced and negotiated in the communication of emotions (Lutz, 1988). Tobin, Wu, and Davidson (1989, 2000) studied Japanese, Chinese and American cultures through their childcare services. This research inspired the present researcher to choose Italy where she has been living seven years, and China which is her motherland. With regard to emotional education, it is useful to refer to the Western view of classical Chinese educational theory. The Canadian professor Moeller mentioned in his book, "The Philosophy of the Daodejing" (2007) that the whole Confucian "project" could be described as a well-founded plan on the cultivation of emotions. As Confucius stated: "The standardization of behavior becomes emotional and inner control, maximum control is self-control." and "Order is a result of the stereotypical cultivation of feelings. The rebel, to be such, must first emotionally free himself from the obligation of standardization" (Moeller, 2007, p.202). If Confucian methodology still influences present-day Chinese society, it prompts scholars to reevaluate Western perspectives. In western views, Rinaldi (President of the well-known Italian pedagogical foundation, Reggio Children) has well defined the importance of emotion in the early childhood educational field: "Our actions are largely determined by emotions and emotions have their reasons and their logic. Learning about feelings helps children to be aware of the 'Reasons of their heart'. Children are not afraid of feelings even if they do not understand them completely: but if they are listened to, their feelings are legitimized, then they talk about them, narrate them, share them. Thus they can give them a form, to contain them and to accept them” (Rinaldi, 2009, p.85). However, China’s “rational” education approach has also been emphasized in schools and classrooms. “Rational” education highlights the dissemination of rational knowledge and tends to downplay the accumulation of emotional experience. “Rational” education emphasizes training and improvement of students’ abilities in language, logic and reasoning rather than abilities to perceive and express emotions (Lin & Yao 2014). It mainly imparts content which comprises clear, logical and systematic scientific knowledge, theories and professional skills through classroom teaching, and adopts standardized tests to evaluate teaching effectiveness. In the main, such a standardized education mode neglects the development of students’ emotional development (Quan & Yao, 2014). In the primary school research on emotions is less, and there is no systematic theoretical reference and practical case. It is necessary to further efforts to learn and to explore emotions at this age range. In primary school Chinese teaching, the importance of emotional education is highlighted to cultivate students’ aesthetic sense and values (Tan, 2020) Given its spread and importance, social-emotional learning has been extensively investigated in the last decade. However, to address a methodological gap, this research involves students actively in the research process rather than passively. It employed a co-participatory approach to assess students' understanding of self-awareness and social awareness through the analysis of facial expression drawings produced by the students; an arts-based approach. OBJECTIVE 1.2. The Present Study The overall aim of the present study was to explore how primary school students from China and Italy represent their own emotions through their own facial expressions, and understand the others’ emotion through facial expression drawings. There were seven specific aims of the study. First, do these young students have the ability to express different facial expressions and emotions? Second, do they have the ability to recognize the other’s emotions? Third, which emotions are chosen to be expressed? Fourth, does accuracy of recognition vary by emotion? Fifth, do Covid-19 Masks affect students in their ability to understand other’s facial expressions and emotions? Sixth, is age at 7-10 years a factor that affects student’s ability to express own emotions and recognise other’s emotions. Seventh, whether the different cultures, China and Italy, influence students ability to understand other’s facial expressions and emotions. METHODS 1.1. Arts-Based Methods In both the East and the West, whether in China or Italy, art has been respected and valued throughout history. Concerning aesthetic education, in ancient China, in the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BC), Confucius considered that "A gentleman must know the art" in a collection of his sayings, ideas and disciples "Analects of Confucius" (《论语》) (Li,2010). Then the Song dynasty (960-1279 AD) created the first Academy of fine art to have excellent artists; in the meantime, the best artists can take on political roles to fulfill the dream of "climbing high": which shows that the value of art has been officially appreciated by power. From historical times until today, the director of Project Zero (Harvard University) Howard Gardner, described his trip to China in 1980: “In China, art is understood as the good and the beautiful, but I was amazed by the incredible production art of Chinese children. From the Western point of view, art is also considered important. Art is an expressive language, art education is grammar (Francucci-Vassalli, 2005). Art is one of the universal languages, it crosses all cultures and unites all peoples. Children seem to know how important art is for them. The enthusiasm and naturalness with which they come into contact with artistic language is at the same time a source of amazement and reflection for us adults, and a sign of hope for the future. Children make the object of cultural exchange what is given and said through artistic communication (Dallari, 2005). Theoretical and practical studies show that art allows children to express themselves and complete their intellectual development: Eisner (1972) identifies the development of visual language that is equally important and complementary to the written and spoken one. Gombrich (1978) insists on the role of art in the dev

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