Impact of Emotional Education programmes on the training of school teachers.
Author(s):
Patricia Torrijos Fincias (presenting / submitting) Adriana Gamazo (presenting) Eva María Torrecilla Sánchez Fernando Martínez Abad Juan Pablo Hernández Ramos María José Rodríguez Conde
Conference:
ECER 2017
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 08 B, Programmes and Approaches: Measuring training practices

Paper Session

Time:
2017-08-24
09:00-10:30
Room:
K5.20
Chair:
Marita Cronqvist

Contribution

The ever-changing features of society and the ensuing social demands prompt an interesting reflection on the topic of initial teacher training. One of the requirements for a quality education system is the involvement of educational professionals beyond the mere transmission of knowledge, thus becoming enablers and promoters of the integral development of the students under their care (Day, 2011; Vaello, 2009).

Currently, there is plenty of research evidencing that the emotional intelligence of teachers influences the teaching-learning process, the academic performance of the students, the climate of the classroom and the quality of interpersonal relationships, while also preventing stress situations and teacher discontent (Pena & Extremera, 2012; Wong, Wong & Peng, 2010). However, there is scarce research on the impact of emotional education training activities for teachers on the level of emotional competence assessed (Bisquerra, Pérez González & García Navarro, 2015; López Goñi & Goñi, 2012, Tossavainen & Turunen, 2013).

On the basis of the contributions of authors such as Serrano (2013) or Pegalajar & López, (2015), we believe that the first recipient of emotional education must be the teachers, mainly due to two reasons: firstly, because they need emotional competences for the exercise of their profession, and secondly, so that they can contribute to the development of the emotional competence of their students, for only a well-trained teacher will be able to implement emotional education programmes in an effective way.

Under these premises, and considering the scarcity of specific programmes designed for the improvement of teacher emotional Intelligence, we proposed the implementation and assessment of a programme for the promotion of emotional competences entitled Pro-Emociona, designed on the basis of previous contributions, theories and studies conducted by experts on the field, and also taking into consideration our own experience as a research group who developed training programmes related to the improvement of coexistence and conflict resolution (Torrecilla, 2014, Torrijos & Martín Izard, 2014).

The implementation of the programme was carried out with pre-service teachers from the Faculty of Education of the University of Salamanca (Spain) who, in the academic year 2014/2015, were in the last years of the Pre-Primary and Primary Education Teacher Bachelor’s Degrees and the University Master’s Degree for Secondary Education, Vocational Education and Language Teachers. As an initial training initiative, and with the support of the Faculty and the University Institute of Educational Sciences (IUCE), we offered two free practical training courses, aiming to assess the impact of this type of training on the promotion of emotional skills such as emotional awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, and well-being, as well as the quality of initial teacher training.

 

Method

In order to measure the efficacy of the programme, we implemented a pre-experimental research design without a control group, with pretest-posttest measurements acquired through previously validated tests (Torrijos & Martín Izard, 2014). The sample was composed by two groups: Group I, 25 Bachelor’s Degree students (future Pre-primary and Primary Education teachers) and Group II, 25 Master’s Degree students (future Secondary Education teachers). All 50 participants voluntarily attended the 30-hour training course, which was imparted from February to May 2015. The aim of this research was to study whether the implementation of the programme brought about positive changes in the participants’ level of emotional competence. The study of the results was accompanied by a formative assessment which allowed us to evaluate the potentialities and limitations of our proposal, thus fostering the decision-making process and the improvement of the training activity. This double assessment perspective was tackled with the following instruments: -Initial questionnaire on expectations and motivations towards Emotional Competences training. Ad-hoc instrument validated through an expert judge process (Torrijos & Martín Izard, 2014). It is composed of open-ended and closed questions and it provides an insight on the interests, previous knowledge, and expectations of the teachers towards the training activity. -Emotional Development Questionnaire for Adults (Cuestionario de Desarrollo Emocional para Adultos -CDE-A-, Pérez-Escoda, Bisquerra, Filella & Soldevila, 2010). This instrument was used to measure the level of self-perceived emotional competence both for the pretest and the posttest. It is composed of 48 Likert-type items ranging from 0 (total disagreement) to 10 (total agreement), in which the participants are asked to express their level of agreement with the statements presented. -Practical cases to measure the level of emotional competence demonstrated by the participants according to their answers to a series of conflict situations, which are assessed through the use of rubrics. -Final satisfaction questionnaire: designed ad-hoc to gather information on the opinion of the participants on the didactic and organisational parts of the programme, as well as their interest to continue their training in this field. -Monitoring journals and semi-structured interviews: conceived as instruments of an open and flexible nature, they allow us to know the participants’ satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and level of self-perceived learning both during the training process and also months after its completion.

Expected Outcomes

The results obtained after the implementation and evaluation of the programme show statistically significant differences (s.l. 0.05) between the pretest and posttest levels of the dimensions of the emotional competence that were being assessed, as well as a high level of satisfaction towards this type of training, considering that the future teachers valued in a very positive way the interest and usefulness of the programme’s contents. Future teachers are highly aware of the importance of developing their emotional competence, an aspect that was more evident in the case of the Master’s students, who showed a higher lack of knowledge on the subject (Serrano Rodríguez, 2013). The main aspects in need of intervention are the ones related to the management or control of the emotions. These results are in agreement with previous research studies, such as the one conducted by Sutton, Mudrey & Knight (2009), who found that teachers were aware that the implementation of emotional regulation strategies helped them manage the students within the classroom, fostering the attainment of educational goals and the establishment of positive relationships. Moreover, the analysis of the monitoring journals revealed a high level of progress on the part of the participants, as well as their satisfaction with the training activity, the usefulness of its contents, and the knowledge acquired. Finally, the implementation and analysis of the semi-structured interviews, which were conducted months after the intervention, show evidences of the transference of the knowledge acquired through the programme to both their personal and professional lives. Therefore, we conclude that emotional education constitutes an interesting and relevant tool to be incorporated to initial teacher training syllabuses, and that empirical studies, such as this one, evidence its benefits.

References

Bisquerra, R., Pérez González, J. C., & García Navarro, E. (2015). Inteligencia emocional en educación. Madrid: Síntesis. Day, C. (2011). Pasión por enseñar. La identidad personal y profesional del docente y sus valores. Madrid: Narcea. Inbernom, 2014; López Goñi, I., & Goñi, J. M. G. (2012). La competencia emocional en los currículos de formación inicial de los docentes. Un estudio comparativo. Revista De Educación, 357(1), 467-489. Pegalajar, M.C. & López, L. (2015). Competencias emocionales en el proceso de formación del docente de Educación Infantil. REICE. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad, Eficacia y Cambio en Educación, 13(3), 95-106. Pena, M., y Extremera, N. (2012). Inteligencia emocional percibida en el profesorado de primaria y su relación con los niveles de burnout e ilusión por el trabajo. Revista de Educación, 359, 604-627. Serrano, R. (2013). Identidad profesional, necesidades formativas y desarrollo de competencias docentes en la formación inicial del profesorado de secundaria. Tesis doctoral. Córdoba: Servicio de publicaciones de la Universidad de Córdoba. Sutton, R., Mudrey, R., y Knight, C. (2007). Emotion regulation and classroom management. Symposium: A person-centered approach to classroom management and why it makes a difference. Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association: Aera. Torrecilla, E. M. (2014). Diseño y evaluación de un programa en resolución de conflictos para la formación inicial y permanente del profesorado de Educación Secundaria. Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca. Torrijos, P. y Martín Izard, J. F. (2014). Desarrollo de competencias emocionales en el profesorado de educación secundaria a través de una intervención por programas. Teoría De La Educación: Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información, 15(1), 90-105. Pérez Escoda, N., Bisquerra, R., Filella, G., y Soldevila, A. (2010). Construcción del Cuestionario de Desarrollo Emocional de Adultos (QDE-A). REOP, 21(2), 367-379. Tossavainen, K., y Turunen, H. (2013). Promoting social, emotional and physical wellbeing, child participation, educational attainment and parent engagement in later childhood the finnish perspective. En V. Barnekow, B. Bruun, C. Currie, A. Dyson, N. Eisenstadt y E. Melhuish (Eds.), Improving the lives of children and young people: Case studies from Europe. Volume 3.School (pp. 29-37). Copenhage: World Health Organization. Vaello, J. (2009). El profesor emocionalmente competente. Un puente sobre las aulas turbulentas. Barcelona: Grao. Wong, C. S., Wong, P. y Peng, K. Z. (2010). Effect of middle-level leader and teacher emotional intelligence on school teachers’ job satisfaction. The case of Hong Kong. Educational Management Administration y Leadership, 38(1), 59-70.

Author Information

Patricia Torrijos Fincias (presenting / submitting)
Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Salamanca
Didáctica, Organización y Métodos de investigación
Salamanca
Adriana Gamazo (presenting)
University of Salamanca
Salamanca
Eva María Torrecilla Sánchez
Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
Fernando Martínez Abad
Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
Juan Pablo Hernández Ramos
Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
María José Rodríguez Conde
Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain

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