Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” – Secţ. Ştiinţele Educaţiei, vol. XIII/2009

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELFEFFICACY IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHERS AURORA ADINA IGNAT * OTILIA CLIPA ** Abstract: This paper intends to figure out the relation between emotional intelligence and the self-efficacy in a sample of preschool and primary teachers. The goal of the study is to identify if there is any correlation between the emotional intelligence and self –efficacy in order to look for some modalities of enhancing the teachers` professional development. The sample comprises 91 teachers both from urban and rural areas, having different didactic experience in terms of professional training and number of career years. The instruments used in investigation are three questionnaires for evaluation the emotional intelligence, general self-efficacy and teacher self-efficacy. The results show that there is a strong correlation between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy so we could consider that the development of the emotional intelligence would contribute to the development of the self-efficacy of the teachers. Keywords: self-efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, teacher training

In the recent years there has been an increased interest in the emotional intelligence concept. There are different definitions and also very different explanations regarding the emotional intelligence. The Psychology Encyclopedia Dictionary (Davis, 2005) the concept of emotional intelligence is explained through its distal origins (the construct “social intelligence” of Thorndike) and through its proximal roots (the intra and interpersonal intelligence of Gardner) and it is viewed as “a difference of the way of the accessing, processing and using the affective information”. The first approach of the emotional intelligence is promoted by John Mayer and Peter Salovey (1997) and they show that the definition should make the connection between the cognitive and the affective areas of the psychic life (since, traditionally the intelligence describes the cognitive dimension of the psychic). Mayer and Salovey offers two definitions for the concept: first ”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 action” and secondly, æ *

“Stefan cel Mare” University Suceava

**

“Stefan cel Mare” University Suceava

AURORA ADINA IGNAT, OTILIA CLIPA revised definition which involve „the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.”(1997, p.10) Reuven Bar-On (2000) defines the emotional intelligence like an area of abilities/competences/noncognitive capacities which influence one’s ability to have success in his adjustment to the environment requirements and pressures. The emotional intelligence model is described through five general categories: intrapersonal emotional quotient (comprising self-regard, emotional selfawareness, assertiveness, independence, and self-actualization), (2) interpersonal emotional quotient (empathy, social responsibility and interpersonal relationship), (3) adaptability (reality testing, flexibility and problem solving), (4) stress management (stress tolerance and impulse control), (5) general mood (optimism and happiness). Daniel Goleman through his book Emotional Intelligence has brought a popular attention to the concept; he invests it with the power for interindividual differences explanation regarding the success which is not due to the IQ. In a nutshell, according to his view, the emotional intelligence is almost everything but the well-known IQ, which is also a limit of his perspective :”ability for selfmotivation and cope to the frustration; ability to control the impulses and delay gratification; ability to regulate the mood and to keep the distress from swamping the ability to think; ability to empathize and to hope”, „the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.” (apud Jennifer Hedlund şi Robert Sternberg, 2000, p.146) K.V. Petrides from University College from London coordinate a research program on emotional intelligence. He gives a conceptualization frame for the construct as a trait (Trait Emotional Intelligence) after he compares two kinds of conceptualizations: the ability and the trait. Together with other researchers (Petrides, Furnham and Frederikson, 2004) the author proposes the term trait emotional intelligence which is the same with the term emotional self-efficacy. Within the literature there are different kinds of conceptualizations for the emotional intelligence: the emotional intelligence viewed as intelligence (it describes an emotional general aptitude so it can be conceived as an equivalent intelligence quotient) (the model of Mayer &Salovey); the emotional intelligence viewed as æ trait (Petrides, 2001) (it offers a better understanding for the way the person filters and directs the emotional aptitudes); the emotional intelligence as a sum of learned competences (it allows the examination of the adjustment way of

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHERS the person and it can be seen as a performance) (the Bar-On model). It is emphasized that the trait emotional intelligence differs from the emotional intelligence ability and the differences are based on the measurement way (Perez, Petrides, Furnham, 2005) (the former construct comprises behavioral dispositions linked to the emotions and self-perceived abilities which are measured through self-report and the last is defined through the cognitive abilities related to the emotions which are measured through maximum-performance tests). Bandura (1997) defines the self-efficacy through „the beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.”. The self-efficacy comprises the one’s beliefs regarding what he is able to do. The one’s ability to reach an objective is related to the belief that the particular objective could be reached. The self-efficacy is a concept developed by Bandura through his socio-cognitive learning theory and it is defined as the one’s expectancy regarding his own possibilities to accomplish specific tasks or goals. In a broader sense the self-efficacy could be understand as the faith in the capacity of successful action. A sense of efficacy has four main influences: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and physiological or emotional feedback (Woolfolk, 1998). The self-efficacy is not æ perceived ability but it is „what I think I can do with my abilities in certain conditions” (Maddux, 2005; Schunk & Pajares, 2002). The self-efficacy is not a trait, but it is the belief about the ability to coordinate skills and abilities in order to reach desirable objectives within particular domains and circumstances. The development of the self-efficacy is influenced by two factors: capacity of symbolic thinking (to understand the relation cause – effect) and the capacity of self-assessment and self-reflection (Maddux, 2005). One could develop the selfefficacy through personal experience, through observing the experience of others and through considering the others comments about their capacity of doing (Lee, L., 2005). The self-efficacy is about the people’s beliefs regarding the required abilities for fulfilling established tasks and for reaching the objectives (Lemeni, Miclea, 2004). The self-efficacy brings out the feeling of having control in one’s own life, of making predictions and controlling the life events, so a better adjustment is resulted. The self - efficacy influences the thinking patterns, the motivational process (attribution types), affective processes, selection processes. The self-efficacy is an expectance related to æ specific task, so that it is æ specific self-perception directed toward fulfilling a goal. The self-efficacy could be neither understood nor evaluated without æ context for self-appraisal. The researches show

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AURORA ADINA IGNAT, OTILIA CLIPA that the self-efficacy is an important predictor of human performance within æ broad array of tasks and contexts. ("Self-Efficacy." Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology. 2007. SAGE Publications. .) The self-efficacy is viewed as the sum of the people’s beliefs in their capacity for producing effects through their own actions. The self-efficacy theory says that these beliefs are the most important factors for the chosen behaviors and for the extent of perseverance in their efforts to cope with challenges and obstacles. The self-efficacy theory sustains that these beliefs have an important role in psychological adjustment, psychological problems, health and in the behavior change strategies (Maddux, James E. "Self-Efficacy." Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. 2007. SAGE Publications. ) The self-efficacy is very important to be developed to the teachers because it is required in the decision making process, in the curricular planning, in the didactic process, in the students learning motivating and in the efficient communication process. (Erdem, E. and Demirel, Özcan, 2007, 576). The teacher’s self-efficacy is developed with the teaching experience growth, through reflections upon teaching modalities and through the observing the other didactic experiences. It is very important for teachers to be in the control of their own educational process and to fulfill their objectives. The development of the self-efficacy of the future teachers could be done through the simulation within practical seminars or through pedagogical practical activities (observing and teaching). The evaluation and the lessons analysis have a significant participation to the self-efficacy development as well as to the teacher’s self-reflexivity development and their motivation for æ good quality of the educational process. The self-efficacy contributes to the higher teacher’s responsibility for the education (Erdem, E. and Demirel, Özcan, 2007, 574) and it bring about the growth of the students` learning motivation. Teaching efficacy is broadly defined as a situation-specific expectation that teachers can help students learn (Ashton and Webb, 1986; Bandura 1997; Cantrell, 2003).

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHERS Method Our study intends to investigate the way emotional intelligence influences the general self-efficacy and teacher’s self-efficacy in primary and preschool teachers. We will try to find out if there are any differences in terms of experience between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of the teachers. The sample comprises 91 teachers from preschool and primary education from Suceava County. The sample composition is: 7 males and 84 females; 47 teachers are from urban area and 44 are from rural area; regarding the didactic level 12 teachers are beginners, 25 teachers definitive staff in Romanian education, 18 are teachers with grade II, and 36 are teachers with grade I; regarding the specialization, 70 teachers are from primary education and 21 are from preschool education settings. The research was done using the questionnaires for investigating the emotional intelligence, the general self-efficacy and the teacher self-efficacy. The respondents were assured for confidentiality of their responses. The 33-item emotional intelligence scale is d eveloped by Nicola S. Schutte, John M. Malouff, Lena E. Hall, Donald J. Haggerty, Joan T. Cooper, Charles J. Golden, Liane Dornheim as a measure of emotional intelligence based on the mode1of emotional intelligence developed by Salovey and Mayer. It has 33 items and investigates the emotional intelligence from the four perspectives: mood regulation, appraisal of emotion, utilization of emotion and sharing/experiencing emotion. The questionnaire requires an evaluation based on a Likert 5-point scale, on which a “1” represented “strongly disagree” and a “5” represented “strongly agree,” to indicate to what extent each item described the person. The Romani an Version of the Gene ral Self-Efficacy Scale is developed by Adriana Baban, Ralf Schwarzer & Matthias Jerusalem, 1996. It comprises 10 items and the respondents are asked to evaluate using a 4-point scale, on which a “1” represented “never” and a “4” represented “always”. The Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale is developed by Ralf Schwarzer, Gerdamarie S. Schmitz, & Gary T. Daytner (1999) to measure teacher self-efficacy through the identification of different job skills within the teaching profession. Four major areas were identified: (a) job accomplishment, (b) skill development on the job, (c) social interaction with students, parents, and colleagues, and (d) coping with job stress. For each of these four domains teachers may hold different self–efficacy expectations. These major areas appear to be of vital importance for successful teaching. The scale comprises 10 items and the respondents are asked to evaluate

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AURORA ADINA IGNAT, OTILIA CLIPA using a 4-point scale, on which a “1” represented “never” and a “4” represented “always”. The instruments used have a good reliability; we verified it through calculating the internal consistency coefficients alpha Cronbach for each scale of every questionnaire. The 33-item emotional intelligence scale has a good reliability for each factor subscale (mood regulation – 0.73, appraisal of emotion – 0.77, utilization of emotion – 0.74 and sharing/experiencing emotion – 0.61). Also the general self-efficacy questionnaire has a good reliability (0.87) and the teacher selfefficacy (0.86). Results Hypothesis 1: There are differences regarding the emotional intelligence and its factors in terms of didactic experience (didactic level) In order to verify this hypothesis we have applied One-Way ANOVA using as independent variable the didactic level and as dependent variables the emotional intelligence and its factors. Based on statistical analyses we obtained that there are no statistical significant differences for p  0.05 between teachers in terms of didactic level regarding the emotional intelligence and the factors of emotional intelligence. There is no relation between the general score of emotional intelligence and the didactic level. For the teachers belonging to the sample we could see that the emotional intelligence is not influenced by getting a certain status of continuous training, but it could be more influenced by the personal development, the affective experience and the professional evolution. The mood regulation, the appraisal of emotion, the utilization of emotion and sharing/experiencing emotion are dimensions which are influenced by the families’ affective style, by local and national culture where the teachers belong to. Hypothesis 2: There is a positive correlation between the teachers` emotional intelligence and their general self-efficacy In order to verify this hypothesis we calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient between the dimensions of The 33-item emotional intelligence scale and the selfefficacy questionnaire. Based on the results, the teachers` emotional intelligence and its factors are correlating significantly with the general self-efficacy. (Table 1)

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHERS Table 1. Pearson correlation coefficients General Emotional Intelligence Mood Regulation Appraisal of emotion Utilization of emotion Sharing/experiencing emotion

General Self-efficacy r = 0,626 p = 0,000 r = 0,651 p = 0,000 r = 0,467 p = 0,000 r = 0,474 p = 0,000 r = 0,427 p = 0,000

Thus we could consider that increasing the level of the emotional intelligence will produce the increasing of the general self-efficacy of the teachers, so this will contribute to the optimization of the professional performance. Hypothesis 3: There is a positive correlation between the emotional intelligence and the teacher self-efficacy In order to verify this hypothesis we calculated the Pearson correlation quotients between the dimensions of The 33-item emotional intelligence scale and the teacher self-efficacy questionnaire. Based on the results, the teachers` emotional intelligence and its factors are correlating significantly with the teacher self-efficacy.(Table 2) Table 2. Pearson correlation coefficients between the dimensions of the emotional intelligence and the teacher self-efficacy Teacher self-efficacy General Emotional Intelligence r = 0,558 p = 0,000 Mood Regulation r = 0,563 p = 0,000 Appraisal of emotion r = 0,415 p = 0,000 Utilization of emotion r = 0,431 p = 0,000 Sharing/experiencing emotion r = 0,396 p = 0,000

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AURORA ADINA IGNAT, OTILIA CLIPA These results show that the emotional intelligence development will influence the teacher self-efficacy development, so that it will sustain the development of the professional performance. Similar results were obtained through researches at the international level. Although the basic idea of teacher efficacy may be tied to professional formation, it could also be proposed that teachers who possess low self-efficacy also have lower emotional intelligence (Chan, 2004). With reference to the connection between emotional intelligence and teacher self-efficacy, Chan (2004) used the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS; Schutte et al., 1998) to measure emotional intelligence. Chan demonstrated that teachers obtain a higher score in the positive utilization dimension, which refers to positive exploitation of emotions, and the emotional appraisal dimension, which expresses the level of awareness of emotional evaluation, followed by the empathic sensitivity dimension, empathy or general sensitivity to the emotional expressions of others, and lastly, by the positive regulation dimension, the positive handling of emotions. Hypothesis 4: There are differences regarding the general and the teacher selfefficacy in terms of didactic experience. In order to verify this hypothesis we calculated the median value (13) for the didactic experience variable. The data analysis took into account this median value. In order to verify this hypothesis we have applied the independent- sample T test between the general and the teacher self-efficacy and the didactic experience (two groups: one represented by the teachers with less than 13 years experience and the other represented by the teachers with more than 13 years experience). Based on the obtained results the teachers with a didactic experience of more than 13 years have significant higher scores to the general self-efficacy (p = 0,005). This fact could be explained through the experience gained during the all career (the mean difference is 2,8)

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELF-EFFICACY IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEACHERS The means of teachers general self-efficacy in terms of didactic experience 31,5 31,1 31 30,5

mean values

30 29,5 29 28,5

28,3

28 27,5 27 26,5 > 13 years

13 years