International Journal of Emotional Education

3 - 20

Authors: Carolina Falcón-Linares

What happens when affection and the awareness of affectivity, in the sense of ‘love’ or ‘tenderness’, become the objects of training and evaluation in pre-service teacher education? Our theoretical framework describes the link between positive emotional arousal and learning, the role played by the emotional dimension in the construction of a professional teaching identity, and the relevance of a teacher’s historical-emotional background for the cognitive construction of heuristics. We developed a teaching program designed to energize the experience of pre-service teachers in the university classroom. Through positive emotional arousal, we aimed to provoke a series of creative reflection processes regarding the teaching profession. Our research goal was to describe and interpret the program’s potential effects on the learning process and the construction of these pre-service teachers’ professional identity. The method applied in this paper was action-research carried out during three academic years of fieldwork with a total of 365 students. We coded the students’ narratives regarding their learning process and teaching identity into several conceptual nodes representing their insights and feelings concerning those topics. Our results and discussion highlight the importance of affective teacher education as a means of enhancing pre-service teachers’ learning, contributing toward the growth of their professional identity, and cultivating a culture of care and love in the classroom.

37 - 53

Authors: Yaw Owusu-Agyeman and Enna M. Moroeroe

This study examines how student engagement and social relationships between teachers and students may enhance the learning experiences of students in a South African university. Two separate sets of semi-structured interviews were held with 27 university teachers and 51 students respectively. The findings revealed that that the relationships between the behavioural and cognitive dimensions of student engagement and social relationships between teachers and students are motivated by good relational communication; relational pedagogy; good inter-relational culture; teacher relational competences (cognitive, behavioural and inter-cultural); and teacher demonstration of care. The current study adds to the literature on relational pedagogy and student engagement by highlighting the importance of inter-relational culture and teacher relational competences to the behavioural and cognitive development of university students. Moreover, when students and particularly, first generation students, students from low socio-economic backgrounds and students from rural communities develop good relationships with their teachers, they are set to have positive learning experiences.

71 - 85

Authors: Shwu Ming Wu

Psychometrically sound and practical measures of emotional intelligence of school principals, psychological climate, and teacher motivation were developed. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships and effects among these variables and to compare the differences between high school and vocational high school, as well as public and private school teachers. A sample of 336 teachers was recruited from different high and vocational high schools in Taiwan. Through MANOVA and hierarchical multiple regression analyses, these measures of emotional intelligence of school principals, psychological climate, and teacher motivation were found to be reliable and valid instruments. Vocational high school teachers scored higher than high school teachers on perceived self-motivation of principals, psychological climate, and teacher motivation. Private school teachers showed higher perceived empathy and principals’ relationships, as well as pressure of psychological climate, whereas public school teachers exhibited higher levels of psychological climate and intrinsic motivation. Additionally, strong positive correlations were found among all three variables, particularly, emotional intelligence of principals and psychological climate, which were found to be significant predictors of teacher motivation. The implication for school principals is that they should focus on enhancing their emotional intelligence and creating a more positive psychological climate, which in turn, promotes teacher motivation.

103 - 121

Authors: Elaine Atkins and Matthew Muscat-Inglott

Existing research suggests that mindfulness cultivates positive affect while reducing negative affect, and facilitates increases in resilience. More research is needed to examine the complex mechanisms by which emotional affect likely translates mindfulness into increased states of resilience in undergraduates. We hypothesised that the relationship between mindfulness and resilience in Maltese undergraduates is mediated by both positive and negative affect. Using a cross-sectional survey design and quantitative methodology based on mediation analysis, a questionnaire comprising the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and Brief Resilience Scale was circulated among 226 Maltese undergraduates. The results support previous research indicating significant relationships between mindfulness and both forms of emotional affect, as well as increased resilience. A path analysis revealed full mediation of the interaction between mindfulness and resilience by affective well-being. The indirect pathways through positive and negative affect to resilience, cumulatively accounted for a majority of the explanatory power attributable to mindfulness alone. Finally, an argument is presented in favour of mindfulness as a more formalised intervention within higher education settings, to support broader psychological wellness outcomes among Maltese undergraduates.

140 - 155

Authors: Anna Patti-Signorelli and José Javier Romero-Díaz de la Guardia

The present study aimed to determine the emotional characteristics of the Trait-Meta-Mood-Scale (TMMS-24) in music-oriented secondary school students in Italy. A 24-item self-assessment protocol was applied to measure the level of perceived emotional intelligence according to 3 dimensions: attention, clarity and repair. This tool represents one of the most widely used self-assessment measures of perceived emotional intelligence. The objective of the study was to conduct construct validation to examine reliability of the Italian version of the TMMS-24 in order to identify its feasibility for the assessment of emotional intelligence. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were conducted on a sample of music-oriented secondary school students in Italy (n=402). Exploratory factor analysis outcomes revealed that the three dimensions of the original scale (attention, clarity and emotional repair) are supported in the examined context, showing adequate internal consistency and describing 52.6% of overall variance. Outcomes were confirmed via confirmatory analysis, obtaining good fit indices (CFI=0.986; TLI=0.985; RMSEA=0.038). The TMMS-24 scale is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the emotional intelligence of secondary school students in Italy.

164 - 168

Authors: Aniko Dely-Palinkas, Noemi Tari-Keresztes and Himanshu Gupta

Physical Education (PE) teachers’ responsibility is critical in supporting the development of students’ motivation, positive attitude and behaviour. . This study explored students’ conflict management styles, the most common sources of conflicts during PE, and the relationship between conflict management styles, self-perceived health and social-emotional wellbeing among high school students in Hungary. A self-administered, anonymous, cross-sectional survey was completed by students in high school (n=385, 54.8 % female Mage =16.98 yrs, SD. 1.28). Only 2.9% of the students reported applying a collaborating management style. These students also rated their health higher. However, students with competitive conflict management were more satisfied with their lives. Most students never had conflicts with the teacher, and if any, they used accommodating conflict management strategies. Behavioural expectations, extreme performance requirements, and disliking the subject were the most common sources of conflicts in PE. The conflict management strategies did not significantly correlate with the psychosomatic symptoms scale; however, students with collaborating conflict management reported fewer sleep problems. These findings underpin the significant role of conflict management skills in health and social-emotional wellbeing.

175 - 179

Authors: Alejandra Daniela Calero, Nicole Rosenfeld, María Belén Jader and Débora Inés Burin

The present work aims to study the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence, and general and emotional vocabulary. Undergraduate Psychology (N = 99) and Design (N = 44) students completed a number of tests about emotional intelligence (TMMS-21), general vocabulary (BAIRES-A), and emotional vocabulary respectively. The predictive effect of emotional vocabulary differed across different factors of emotional intelligence (positive in attention to feelings and negative in emotion repair), while a positive association was found in psychology students with more years completed at university. Psychology students had higher emotional vocabulary than Design students. Emotional vocabulary had limited influence on emotional intelligence, contrary to the theory of Constructed Emotion.

4 - 20

Authors: Rachael Jacobs

Dewey (1938) once wrote that the most effective forms of learning connect intellectual processes with emotion, which is able to inspire curiosity and excite the learner. This paper adds to the body of research that attests to the transformative role of affect in teacher education, which is able to be cultivated through arts-based service-learning experiences. Pre-service teachers at two universities in Sydney, Australia were placed in service-learning settings that were based around participatory experiences in drama and storytelling, music, dance or visual art. The pre-service teachers’ reflections on the placement revealed a transformative experience which combined emotional learning with critical analysis of social justice issues as they relate to education. As part of their placement, they experienced arts engagement that utilised affect and emotion as a transformative pedagogy. They broadened their understanding of the role of teachers, both in an institution and in society. These emerging understandings led them to find voice as advocates, investigate arts education and community projects as alternative career paths and re-evaluate their own perceptions of quality teaching. Some participants continued engaging with the community arts projects after the placement had concluded, and others became advocates for the arts in education and society. Finally, they adopted a critical stance on social justice issues, and shed light on the ways that arts learning service-learning placements can become deeper engagements, leading to sustainable benefits for all parties.

34 - 52

Authors: Valeria Cavioni, Ilaria Grazzani, Veronica Ornaghi, Alessia Agliati, Sabina Gandellini, Carmel Cefai, Liberato Camilleri, Paul Bartolo, Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić, Lana Golob, Maria Poulou, Baiba Martinsone, Inga Supe, Celeste Simões, Paula Lebre, Adina Colomeischi, Petruta Rusu, Lidia Acostoaie, Tatiana Vintur, Elisabetta Conte

In the last two years, a growing number of studies have focused on the promotion of students’ mental health to address the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, less studies have been conducted on sustaining teachers’ mental health which has been affected by the sudden changes in online teaching and the difficulties in keeping and building relationship with students. Even before the pandemic, teaching has long been recognised as one of the most challenging occupations characterized by high levels of stress. Although the research highlighted the key role of mental health promotion among teachers, there is still a lack of programs enhancing teachers’ wellbeing. This study examined the impact of the PROMEHS program, a school-based curriculum, on teachers’ mental health. A total of 687 teachers participated in the study. Applying a pre- and post-training study design with experimental and waiting list groups, teachers were evaluated in social and emotional learning, resilience, and self-efficacy. The results showed that there was a significant improvement in all competences of the teachers in the experimental group compared to those in the waiting list group. The paper discusses the implications of the findings with recommendations for further studies in the area.

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Authors: Jean-Marc Triffaux, Serge Tisseron and Julian A. Nasello

Several authors have underlined the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in several populations, including medical students, such as increases in anxiety, depression and burnout symptoms. Furthermore, previous studies showed that anxiety and depressive symptoms are positively associated with affective empathy and negatively associated with cognitive empathy. Given the adverse pandemic effects highlighted by several authors, the present study sought to determine whether medical students’ empathy has been potentially impacted, with higher affective empathy and lower cognitive empathy score in the pandemic cohort compared to pre-pandemic cohorts. Medical students (n = 395) were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic and completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Basic Empathy Scale (BES). This cohort was then compared with two pre-pandemic cohorts (one used the BES [n = 1168], and the other used the IRI [n = 342]). Similar results were found on both scales: the pandemic cohort displayed significantly higher scores in affective empathy and personal distress (affective empathy domain) and, surprisingly, significant higher scores in cognitive empathy, fantasy, and perspective-taking (cognitive empathy domains). As stressed by previous studies, we posited that the higher scores in affective empathy, personal distress, and fantasy might indicate emotional difficulties. The paper concludes with the identification of empathy components that should be promoted in the curriculum of medical students.

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Authors: Dilek Ozdogan and Savas Akgul

The current study comparatively examines the emotional intelligence and perfectionism of gifted and non-identified students. A total of 857 students participated in the study. Data were collected through the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale, which measures students’ perfectionism levels and the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Version EQ-i:YV, which measures students’ emotional intelligence. Our findings indicate that gifted students' scores in the intrapersonal and adaptability subdimensions of emotional intelligence and their overall scores in emotional intelligence are higher than those of non-identified students; while non-identified students’ average score of positive perfectionism is higher than that of the gifted students. Additionally, we found a negative correlation between positive impression and negative perfectionism in the non-identified group, while the correlation between these variables was positive amongst the gifted participants. Our findings may help design successful educational and guidance programmes for the gifted and their non-identified peers and in-service programmes for their teachers and counsellors.

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Authors: Iñigo Aguinaga San José, Ana Martinez-Pampliega, Txemi Santamaría and Laura Merino Ramos

This paper presents a model that analyses the relationship between the coach’s emotional competences and the training climate as predictors of the youngsters’ emotional competences and psychological well-being. In the present study, 309 athletes and 17 coaches participated in the study. A general predictive model was estimated with path analysis and the maximum robust likelihood (MLR) estimation method. The results showed that the coach’s emotional competences are associated with autonomy-supportive climates (β = .15, p < .005). This climate is related to youth’s emotional competences (β = .30, p < .005) and lower emotional (β = -.27, p < .005), behavioural (β = -.51, p < .005), and social (β = -.33, p < .005) symptomatology. These results have important practical implications in designing interventions that promote coaches’ emotional competences given its association with autonomy-supportive climates, which in turn are related to athletes’ emotional competences and psychological well-being.

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Authors: Helen Cowie

The books reviewed here cover a wide gamut, but the common concern of the authors is to explore a variety of ways in which to resolve the pressures and huge anxieties that face children and young people today in all the countries of the world. First, in Cultivating Kindness: An Educator’s Guide, the author, John-Tyler Binfet, conveys his passion for the role of kindness in alleviating many of the interpersonal difficulties that are experienced every day in many different situations, causing unnecessary emotional pain. As he argues, teachers can cultivate this quality in their classrooms so that reaching out to others in distress becomes a regular mode of being towards one another. The second book, Cyberbullying and Online Harms: from Community to Campus, an international edited collection, takes a broader perspective by focusing on the disturbing phenomenon of cyberbullying and online abuse in schools and universities, with examples from different disciplines - the law, criminology, sociology, institutional and governmental policy-making, education, campaigning and political action, counselling-based approaches – on how to understand and address this worldwide problem. The third book, an edited collection, Arts Therapies and the Mental Health of Children and Young People: Contemporary Research, Theory and Practice, Volume 1, gives inspiring insights into the role of arts therapies - play, music, puppetry, dance movement, art & drama - in alleviating emotional distress in children and young people from different countries and with a range of particular issues in their lives, whether health-related, cultural, social or political. Each of these books will be of great interest to practitioners and researchers alike.