Teacher Emotional Intelligence and High Quality Teaching In Secondary Classrooms

Manuscript 1: This study examined teachers' relational approach to discipline as a predictor of high school students' behavior and their trust in teacher authority. Findings from interviews and surveys with 32 teachers and 32 discipline-referred students supported a mediational model; the association between a relational approach to discipline and cooperative/defiant behavior was mediated by adolescents' perceptions of their teachers as trustworthy authority figures. Teachers may earn the trust and cooperation of students if they use relationship-building to prevent discipline problems. Implications for school psychologists' consultation with teachers and the racial discipline gap are discussed.

Manuscript 2: This study examined the dispositions and emotions of pre-service teachers and the association between these attributes and the quality of pre-service teachers' interactions with students. Data were collected from 67 pre-service teachers at entry and exit from a teacher education program. Results showed that pre-service teachers differed from their same-age peers in most of their personality characteristics and emotions. With one exception, these characteristics of pre-service teachers remained largely unchanged during pre-service teachers' years in a teacher education program. Finally, pre-service teachers' report of their levels of extraversion and depressive symptoms were predictive of their observed interactions with students.

Manuscript 3: Using a risk and protective paradigm, the present study examined whether teachers' emotional intelligence and stress predicted observed teaching quality. Additionally, emotional intelligence of teachers was examined as a buffer against the negative effects of stress. Using surveys and observations of 83 teachers, results from hierarchical linear modeling found that emotional intelligence was a either a risk or protective factor depending on the specific domain of teaching quality and the amount of teacher-reported stress. For teachers with high levels of stress, emotional intelligence predicted high quality emotional and instructional domains of teaching. However, teachers with low levels of stress did not appear to benefit from high levels of emotional intelligence in these domains. Beyond emotional intelligence, teachers' gender and years of experience were also linked with domains of quality instruction. Implications for teacher development are discussed.