Engaging students emotionally: the role of emotional intelligence in predicting cognitive and affective engagement in higher education

Abstract

Student engagement is a key predictor of academic performance, persistence and retention in higher education. While many studies have identified how aspects of the college environment influence engagement, fewer have specifically focused on emotional intelligence (EI). In this study, we sought to explore whether EI could predict cognitive and/or affective engagement in a sample of undergraduate psychology students in Ireland. Ninety-one students completed two forms of the student engagement instrument, rating current engagement and retrospective secondary school engagement, along with the trait EI (TEI) questionnaire. After controlling for academic ability, gender and school engagement, multiple regression analyses found TEI to be a positive predictor of both cognitive and affective engagement. Previous academic performance acted as an additional predictor of cognitive engagement, while retrospective affective school engagement predicted current affective engagement. These results suggest that interventions aimed at increasing EI may have positive implications for many aspects of student engagement, and hence performance at third level.

Students’ Emotional Engagement, Motivation and Behaviour Over the Life of an Online Course: Reflections on Two Market Research Case Studies

“…There is little sense in considering the act of learning as a rite of passage. Not only do a number of studies suggest the importance of emotion as a whole on learning (Maguire et al 2017;Oriol et al 2016), but others delve deeper and show that the type of emotion experienced by learners is important: autonomous motivation generates better learning than controlled motivation, whereby feelings of pride and guilt drive the desire to meet internalised social expectations (Cai & Liem 2017). In this model, failure can have real consequences, in which a hypercompetitive environment causes stress and mental illness (Posselt & Lipson 2016).…”

Exploring Engineering Undergraduates’ Emotional Intelligence: A Gender Comparison Study In Malaysia

“…The fourth method introduced is based on the non-selfassessment method on the perception of behaviour by supervisors, peers, and subordinates. In this study, traits EI is used to measure students EI levels and according to Maguire et al, (2016) this method has been successfully applied in the educational context. Traits EI is also able to suggest the right academic or vocational line in the higher education setting (Sanchez-Ruiz et al, 2013).…”

“…Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as the "the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions" (Mayer & Salovey, 1990, p.189). EI has been found to be significant in education and career growth (Maguire, Egan, Hyland, & Maguire, 2016). Addressing EI is an interdisciplinary approach to explore technical and non-technical knowledge that may influence professionalism in the knowledge society (Marcos-Jorquera, Pertegal-Felices, Jimeno-Morenilla, & Gilar-Corbí, 2017).…”

The Implementation of Emotionally-Valuable Component of the Content of Foreign-Language Education (on the Material of Study Course “Spotlight”). Part II

“…Secondly, positive ideas of students' emotional sphere revitalisation were studied (V. M. Alyushin (2015), S. V. Chernyshov, Yu.N. Khusainova (2016), O. V. Kotomina (2017), O. V. Sungurova (2014), M. G. Yanovskaya (2008) [12][13][14][15][16], and also M. Beaudoin (1999), K. Kato [17][18][19][20][21][22]). The researchers emphasise the necessity of increasing students' motivation, satisfaction, of developing their interest to the subject "a foreign language" in different spheres of communication.…”