The relationship between EFL teachers’ trait emotional intelligence and reflective practices: a structural equation modeling approach

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the results of a study examining whether EFL teachers’ emotional intelligence (EI) predicts their degree of involvement in reflective practices (RPs). To this end, 230 Iranian EFL teachers filled out the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire developed by Petrides (2009) and the English Language Teaching Reflection Inventory designed by Akbari, Behzadpoor, and Dadvand (2010). The results of Pearson correlation revealed that the participants’ total EI and RP scores were significantly associated with each other. Furthermore, the four EI factors – namely Emotionality, Self-control, Sociability, and Well-being – significantly correlated with the teachers’ RP, with the highest coefficient being observed for Well-being. Likewise, the five reflection subscales (i.e. practical, cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and critical reflection) had statistically measurable correlations with the teachers’ EI, with the lowest coefficient being registered for critical reflection. Moreover, the structural model, which emerged as a result of conducting structural equation modeling analysis, indicated that Emotionality, Self-control, and Sociability indirectly predicted the degree of EFL teachers’ engagement in RPs via the mediating role of Well-being. The highest and lowest predictive powers were respectively recorded for Sociability and Self-control. The findings are discussed in light of the available literature. At the end, it is recommended that special training programs should be devised to develop EFL teachers’ EI and indirectly behoove them to more passionately reflect on their practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Trait emotional intelligence
• reflective practice
• EFL teachers
• teacher education
• SEM analysis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all cooperating teachers who kindly participated in this study. We are also grateful to the journal editors and anonymous reviewers whose insightful comments on earlier drafts helped us improve the quality of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ehsan Seydi Shahivand received his M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. He has also taught general English courses for several years in different language schools. His major research interest is L2 teacher education. In particular, he worked on EFL teachers’ emotional intelligence and reflective practices in his M.A. thesis.

Shahab Moradkhani is an assistant professor of Applied Linguistics at Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. His main research interest is L2 teacher education. He has specifically concentrated on subjects like L2 teachers’ self-efficacy, reflective practices, emotional intelligence, and pedagogical knowledge. His latest works have appeared in Reflective Practice, System, Teaching and Teacher Education and ELT Journal.