The relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy among Iranian EFL teachers

Abstract

A consideration of emotion has been traditionally neglected in the context of teaching and teacher education. This has begun to change with the recent research on emotional intelligence (EI). It is highly likely that emotionally intelligent individuals could provide help in how to manage emotions to less emotionally intelligent individuals. Therefore, the assessment of EI has great relevance for EFL teachers who have to deal with students coming to class with negative feelings about learning a foreign language. This study attempted to assess EI and its relationship to self-efficacy (one important belief that appears to have important effects on teacher and student outcomes) among Iranian EFL teachers. We hypothesized that if teachers develop their EI, this will increase their levels of self-efficacy and vice versa. In addition, EFL teacher differences on EI and self-efficacy beliefs were also examined with respect to gender, age, and teaching experience. The instruments for data collection were Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) ( Schutte et al., 1998 ) and Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) ( Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy, 2001 ). The results obtained through using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation showed that there was a positive significant correlation between perceived EI and self-efficacy ( r = 0.5). Using t -test and ANOVA, the researchers found that there was no significant difference among EFL teachers with different genders, ages and teaching experiences concerning their EI and self-efficacy.