Emotional intelligence training intervention among trainee teachers: a quasi-experimental study

Abstract

Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) has often been linked to improvements in professional performance. Indeed, generic competencies related to EI have been included in university curricula. However, learning EI involves significant time and effort on the part of students, and this may hinder the acquisition of specific content for each degree. In this study, an intervention to develop EI in higher education students is described and evaluated. Methods:The intervention consisted of eight group sessions performed in a regular course aiming to increase EI. The sessions included strategies and training on perceiving and understanding one's own emotions and others' emotions, identifying and understanding the impact one's own feelings in adopting decisions, expressing one's own emotions and the stress experienced, and managing both one's own emotions and emotions of others. Participants were 192 students studying for a Master of Primary Education degree. A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was adopted. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated using multi-level analyses. Results:The results showed a significant improvement in the EI of students in the experimental group compared with the control group.Conclusions: This research demonstrates that it is possible to develop EI in higher education students, without hindering the acquisition of specific content competencies and, therefore, without interfering with their academic performance and without overburdening students with work outside the classroom.Trial registration: The experiment has been registered in the Initial Deposit of the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS). 7/6/2015.

Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Burnout among Spanish Teachers: A Mediation Study

“…A better understanding of the decreasing effect of each of the emotional abilities on the specific dimensions of burnout symptoms could be the key for the development of effective burnout intervention and prevention helping teachers to return to work (Ahola et al, 2017;Capone et al, 2019;Gálvez-Iñiguez, 2018). In consequence, there has been an increase in the implementation of emotional skills training in schoolteacher population due to the evidence of their effectiveness in reducing teacher stress and enhancing well-being and satisfaction with their jobs (Gilar-Corbi et al, 2018;Hoffmann et al, 2020;Sandilos et al, 2020;Schoeps et al, 2019;von der Embse et al, 2019).…”

Relation between perceived emotional intelligence and social factors in the educational context of Brazilian adolescents

“…The role given to the area of emotional intelligence (EI) in the social sciences as a key aspect and guarantee for well-being, contemplating a series of capacities that are related to academic performance or the improvement of coexistence in the classroom and without a doubt, they are a judge for the success both in the academic and professional fields ( Bar-On & Parker, 2000;Dolev & Leshem, 2017;Gilar-Corbi et al, 2018;Gutiérrez-Moret et al, 2016). Scientific studies have established the fact that high levels in these capacities have a causal relationship to better physical and mental health, greater well- Mayer (1997) being, as well as better social functioning and school performance (Fernández-Berrocal and Ruiz Aranda, 2017).…”

Teachers’ Psychological Characteristics, Teacher Effectiveness, and Within-Teacher Outcomes: An Integrative Review

“…Such programs are additionally encouraged to consider enhancing teachers' deep acting and decreasing surface acting strategies-the former has been linked to teaching satisfaction (Yin et al, 2019), whereas the latter goes along with higher levels of maladaptive well-being aspects and lower levels of adaptive wellbeing aspects (e.g., H. Wang et al, 2019), meaning that we would do well to actively prevent teachers from dealing with their emotions in this way. Our integrative review further suggests that another promising direction for well-being interventions in the emotional domain could center on increasing teachers' emotional intelligence capacities (for an example see e.g., Gilar-Corbi et al, 2018). Considering the related yet distinct nature of emotional labor strategies and emotional intelligence (e.g., Yin, 2015), they can potentially be constructively combined in intervention programs to achieve the best outcomes.…”