Recognising emotional intelligence in professional standards for teaching

Abstract

A project conducted in a primary school explored the hypothesis that student teachers could reflect upon feedback to improve their use of emotional intelligence in the classroom, thereby making consequent improvements to their teaching as defined by the required professional teaching standards. The small body of literature on the emotional intelligence of teaching is reviewed, informing a defi nition of the term ‘emotional intelligence’ and the project’s research methodology.

Four student teachers and their teacher mentors participated with a teacher educator to provide two data sets – joint lesson observations records and semi-structured interviews.  The joint observations were conducted with the teacher educator, using an observational checklist based on an emotional intelligence competencies framework, and the mentor, assessing demonstration of the required professional standards. Two lessons per student were observed with a four week interval. Shortly after the second observation, student teachers and mentors were interviewed in peer pairs. The outcomes show linked improvements in terms of emotional intelligence and the professional standards, with the mentor and student teacher participants confirming the value and relevance of assessment through an emotional

intelligence filter. The findings have implications for emergent and established teachers in school and higher education settings. They call for a learning community to share good practice and support each other’s development through observation, discussion and modelling of emotionally-intelligent teaching and conduct.

The study concludes that higher education programmes and partner schools would benefit from time, curriculum provision and government agency support to recognise, reflect upon and develop emotional intelligence in teaching.