The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of emotional intelligence in understanding students' satisfaction with their teacher. The study hypothesized that the higher the emotional intelligence of a teacher, the more satisfied ...
The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of emotional intelligence in understanding students' satisfaction with their teacher. The study hypothesized that the higher the emotional intelligence of a teacher, the more satisfied students with the teacher. Also, emotional intelligence of a teacher rated by his/her coworker was hypothesized to explain students’ satisfaction with the teacher above and beyond teacher’ own rating of emotional intelligence.
One hundred and six elementary school teachers and their co-workers provided the rating of emotional intelligence of teachers, while 3,341 students rated their satisfaction with their teacher. The average satisfaction rating of all students of each teacher’s class was used to measure students’ satisfaction with their teacher. The data showed that both teacher’s own rating and coworker’s rating of teacher’s emotional intelligence were significantly and positively related to student’s satisfaction with their teacher. However, coworker’s rating of teacher’s emotional intelligence did not have additional explanatory power over teacher’s own rating in explaining students’ satisfaction with their teacher. The implications and limitations of the findings were discussed.