The Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Critical Thinking Skills, Their EQ and Their Students’ Engagement in the Task

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers’ critical thinking skills, their Emotional Quotient (EQ) and their students’ engagement in the task. To that end, 20 EFL high school teachers completed “Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal” (Form A) and the “Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory”. Furthermore, 600 male and female learners, the students of the teacher participants at the time, participated in the study by answering the Persian version of “Tinio High School Survey on Student Engagement”. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant relationship between teachers’ critical thinking skills and their students’ engagement in the task. However, the results did not show any meaningful relationship between teachers’ EQ and their students’ engagement in the task and also between teachers’ critical thinking skills and their EQ, although the results pointed to a high degree of correlation between ‘intrapersonal aspects of teachers’ EQ’ and ‘students’ behavioral engagement’.