Teaching the teachers: emotional intelligence training for teachers

A growing body of research in recent years has supported the value of emotional intelligence in both effective teaching and student achievement. This paper presents a pre–post, quasi-experimental design study conducted to evaluate the contributions of a 56-h “Emotional Intelligence” training model. The model has been developed and studied in an attempt to address educators’ growing needs to practice and implement “emotionally intelligent” learning environments. One hundred eighty-six teachers from ten elementary schools in Israel participated in this study. Findings indicated an increase in emotional intelligence and empathic concern from the beginning to the end of the course. Further regression indicated that both expression and regulation of emotions predicted empathy at the end of the course. Participants’ reflective assignments indicated an increase in self introspection, emotional awareness, emotional regulation and understanding others.