Emotional Intelligence as a Tool for Innovative Teaching
Author: Joshith, V. P.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Emotional Intelligence,Instructional Innovation,Student Teacher Attitudes,Student Teachers,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Pretests Posttests,Learning Activities,Teacher Competencies,Correlation,Student Development,Foreign Countries

Interest in Emotional Intelligence can, in part, be gauged by the amount of research activity it has stimulated since first making an appearance in the psychological literature about 20 years ago. Everyone can profit from enhancing his or her emotional intelligence, because this important construct has a positive impact on human performance, leading to personal effectiveness and eventually to overall well-being. Conventionally, a teacher brings two things to the classroom that are of value to the learners, one is expertise in the subject and the other is knowledge of teaching-learning methods. Emotional Intelligence is the unrecognized third component what a teacher possess and also delivers to her learners indirectly. From the last two decades educational professionals understood the importance of feelings in the overall development of their pupils and in their own daily tasks. Teachers are aware of the role played by emotions in their daily effort. Emotions and skills for coping with them affect learning processes, mental and physical health, the quality of social relationships and academic and work performance (Brackett &amp; Caruso, 2007). Teaching is considered to be one of the most stressful occupations, especially because it involves daily work based on social interactions where the teacher must make great effort to regulate not only his or her own emotions, but also those of students, parents, colleagues etc., (Brotheridge &amp; Grandey, 2002). As emotional intelligence is playing vital role in teaching the present study is attempted to adopt emotional intelligence based teaching strategies to enhance emotional intelligence which in turn influence teaching competence. The objective of this study is to develop knowledge among student teachers about their strengths and development of opportunities related to the emotional intelligence competencies. In the present study the researcher identified Self awareness, Managing Emotions, Motivating Oneself, Empathy and Handling Relationship (Goleman 1998) from the different models proposed by Bar-On, Goleman &amp; Boyatzis, Mayor, Salovey &amp; Caruso, Orioli &amp; Cooper. The investigator developed an emotional intelligence package with activities for each component. Pre-Post Two group experimental design was adopted in study with a sample of 25 each in experimental and control group. The result showed that the emotional intelligence package was successful as it evinced an increased Emotional intelligence on the sample. Further, the study revealed that the student teachers are able to understand their innate potentials and the ability to tackle stressful situations. They also expressed their emotions openly and also read the minds of colleagues. The present study is a lime light for the student teachers to prepare them in a holistic approach to uphold their emotional intelligence and promote better emotional intelligence among their students by designing their classroom activities in a more refined manner.