How Emotionally Intelligent Are Preservice Teachers?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 50
  In Roundtable Session: Considering Teachers’ Beliefs and Teachers’ Attitudes About Social and Emotional Learning: Correlates and Consequences

Abstract

This study examined the level of emotional skills of a relatively large and diverse group of pre-service teachers as measured by the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). The results suggest that pre-service student teachers typically have a level of Emotional Intelligence significantly below the average for the wider population and that this holds true irrespective of the level at which they are studying (undergraduate or graduate level) and of the mode of entry to teacher education (by academic grades alone or by grades combined with an interview). The relationship between students’ levels of Emotional Intelligence (as measured on the MSCEIT), and their performance as a teacher in schools (as measured by grades on teaching practicum) was also examined.

Authors

• Roisin P. Corcoran, Yale University

• Roland Tormey, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne