Integration of emotional intelligence in teaching practices among university teachers at higher learning

Abstract

Emotional intelligence abilities of university teachers are more likely to establish conducive emotional teaching and learning environments through their teaching practices, thus promote students’ learning motivation and engagement. Despite the emphasis on the importance of teachers’ emotional intelligence abilities in teaching, it continues to be under acknowledged and under developed. This is evidenced by few studies reported on the relationship between emotions and teaching approaches in higher education. This study therefore attempts to explore the roles of emotion and integration of emotional intelligence in teaching practices among university teachers in higher learning, guided by the Four-Branch Emotional Intelligence Ability Model of Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (2004). A descriptive case study was applied with a total of ten university teachers recruited based on inclusion criteria and semi structuredly interviewed. As case study requires multiple data sources, interviews were subsequently conducted with five university students and a Deputy Vice Chancellor. In addition, scores from Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) of the university teachers were obtained and tabulated. The findings established an emergence of eleven themes and nine subthemes based on the interviews conducted with university teachers. The themes corresponded to the emotional intelligence abilities of perceiving, facilitating, understanding and managing emotion based on the Four Branch-Emotional Intelligence Ability Model. These were further triangulated with university teachers’ scores of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, which were found to achieve a median of 5 and above, based on a seven Likert scale on four major domains namely self-emotional appraisal, emotional appraisal of others, use of emotion and regulation of emotion. The study demonstrated the importance of developing emotional intelligence abilities as it directly influences teaching and learning processes. As a matter of fact, the abilities are subconsciously embedded and demonstrated through teaching practices. Having observed a considerable amount of emotional intelligence skills integrated in teaching practices and its equal impact on students, training on emotional intelligence needs to be developed. Perhaps it could be included as one of the competencies required for university teachers.