ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to determine the influence of teachers’ emotional intelligence on students self esteem and school adjustment of secondary school students in Ogoja education zone of cross rivers state. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. Ex-post-facto research design was employed for the study. The population for the study was 3665 which comprises of teachers and students. Multi stage sampling techniques was used to select 351 respondents. The instruments for data collection were teachers emotional intelligence scale (TEIS), students self esteem questionnaire (SSEQ) and school adjustment questionnaire (SAQ). To ensure the validity of the instruments, the instruments were face validated by three experts, two from the Department of educational psychology and one from Science Education Department. The data generated from the trial testing was analyzed using T-test statistics and the overall reliability index of 0.87 was obtained. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions while t test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study showed that, teachers’ emotional intelligence significantly influenced secondary school students’ self-esteem and school adjustment. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that, teachers’ should be exposed to workshop and seminarson emotional intelligence which will help develop students’ self-esteem and their school adjustment.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The school environment is a place where students develop their intellectual potentials; it is also a place where students learn to get along with other people which will help to build their self-esteem. This implies that the students’ relationship with their teachers and other students will influence their self-esteem. As they go through school, they begin to understand and recognize the differences between themselves and their classmates. Using comparisons, children assess whether they did better or worse than their classmates in different activities. These comparisons play an important role in building children’s self-esteem and influence their positive and negative feelings. The positive and negative feeling students have about themselves is what psychologist refers to as self-esteem.
Self-esteem as an effective act and encapsulates value or worth people attach to their own self-assessments and the way individuals feel about their strengths and weaknesses (Wool folk, 2005). It is also a term that reflects a person’s overall emotional evaluation. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs, for instance “I am competent”, “I am worthy and emotion such as triumph, despairs, pride and shame. According to Weare (2000), self-esteem is the degree of value a person considers for himself. Murphy and Murpy (2006) opine that, self-esteem is one of the most salient explaining factors, quality of life in those that are suffering from psychological disabilities.
Self-esteem can be high or low. High self-esteem has to do with the ability of an individual to have positive evaluation about his value or worth. Low self-esteem has to do with the ability of an individual to have negative evaluation about his value or worth, (Roy, Campbell, Krueger, and Vohs, 2009). People with high self-esteem may cope well in a challenging task while those that have low self-esteem may avoid a task that requires effort and intellectual ability, (Orth, Robins & Widaman, 2011). Kermode & Machin (2001) opine that, people with high self–esteem can influence other peoples’ opinions or behavior in a positive way, they can communicate their feelings and emotions in any situation, they can approach new situation in a positive and confident manner, and they can also accept responsibilities and can keep situations positive in a proper perspective. Kermode and Machin (2001) added that, self-esteem is relevant in general indices of life because it helps people to have positive or negative evaluation to their own worth and it enable individuals to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and also it help an individual to aspire high in a task that is too demanding and challenging.
In school, self-esteem has both positive and negative influence on students in the sense that, students with high self-esteem may have good school adjustment while those with low self-esteem may have school adjustment problems.
It is believed that people with high self-esteem are able to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses while people with low self-esteem are not able to acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses instead they will rely on peoples’ efforts and abilities. Eldred, Ward, Dutton & Snowdon (2004) asserted that, self-esteem is more than one’s feelings. It is also about an individual being aware of his ability, being able to acknowledge positive and negative aspects and still feel good. According to Levine and Smolak, (2002), Neziroghu, Khemlani-Patel & Veale, (2008) self-esteem reflects the totality of a person’s subjective perceptions, attitudes, feelings, physical characteristics and behavior. People that have high self-esteem are clear, consistent, and realistic and they behave in a way that is positive, healthy and effective. Harter (2000)& Alenandra (2001),opines that, high self-esteem comes from one’s competence in the things he value while low self-esteem is the outcome of negative judgments when an individual focus on their weaknesses. Harter (2000) added that people with high self-esteem always accept their good qualities, they are courageous and defensive. They are more likeable and attractive; they have better relationships and make better impression on others than people with low self-esteem.
People with low self-esteem find it difficult to make a decision, they are easily defenseless, they exhibit low frustration tolerance and they also learned helplessness, Hewitt (2009). The researcher has discovered in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State through the classroom teachers and school counselors that, some secondary school students have low self-esteem and it influencing them negatively. Students with low self-esteem may tend to participate in class activities but because their self-esteem is low and their classroom teachers are not really mindful of these, they may not have the desire to participate in such activity. Some of these students find it difficult to make decision, they exhibit low frustration tolerance and they do not have the ability to approach new situation in school in a positive and confident manner. These problems make them to have inferiority complex, inability to answer question in the class, inability to participate in classroom activities, being depressed, being withdrawn from other activity such as not interacting with people, and not partaking in sport activities among others. A classroom teacher may influence positive self-esteem on students by encouraging students who are emotionally unbalanced and help them to acquire confidence and faith in them, by involving students in decision making especially in matters affecting them in the class, by getting them involve in class activities such as reading and answering questions in the class and by changing the sitting position of those students with low self-esteem.
Operationally, self-esteem can be defined as the totality of evaluation an individual has made about himself which has influence on his behavour. People with low self-esteem may have problem with adjustment but individuals with high self-esteem may have good adjustment.
Adjustment has been defined in various ways by psychologists. Raju & Rahamtulla (2007) defined adjustment as a process of maintaining harmonious relationship between living organism and its environment. Ugoduluma & Anakwe (2012) defined adjustment as a way in which an individual attempts to make efforts at the same time to maintain harmonious relationship with his environment. This means if an individual can deal with the stress, tension, conflict and needs in his environment he may have good adjustment. People tend to adjust in any challenging situation so that they may function well. Ugoduluma and Anakwe (2012) added that, parents’ child relationship and nature of the family play relevant roles in adjustment. This implies that, a child may have good adjustment if there is a cordial relationship between the parents and the child. A child that is from a divorced family may show poor adjustment when compared to their counterparts from non-divorced family. Responsiveness and warmth from parents and other family members may bring good adjustment for a child but a child that lack responsiveness and warmth from parents and other family members may have adjustment problems. A child from such family may have academic problems, delinquency and among others. Since psychological development and adjustment of a child start from the family. This implies a student who is not well adjusted at home may have school adjustment problems but a student who is well adjusted at home may have good school adjustment.
School adjustment can be defined as the capacity of a student to respond to school environment. Agbakwuru & Agbakwuru (2012) defined school adjustment as a process of bringing an individual’s behaviour in conformity with the norms of the school setting. This means a child who is in the school environment must adhere to the standard of the school. Gates and Jerild in Mangal (2008) also defined school adjustment as a continual process in which the students vary their behaviour to produce a more harmonious relationship with the school environment. Berk (2009) opines that, well-adjusted students value what they are learning and they are positively involved in classroom activities. Students that have good school adjustment may have high self-esteem while those that have school adjustment problems may have low self-esteem. Recently it has been observed by the researcher through classroom teachers and school counselors that, school adjustment problems have been on the increased among secondary school students in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State. The problems include examination malpractices, dropping out of school, bullying, school violence, truancy, drug abuse and sexual immorality among others. Students that have good school adjustment may be aware of their strengths and limitations, have adequate level of aspiration, cope in a task that is too demanding and challenging, have balanced philosophy which gives them direction to life, have respect for themselves and obey the school rules and regulations. Some students with school adjustment problems may not cope effectively with the demand and challenges that exist in the school environment. This could be as a result of inability of the students to face school activities.
In the same vein, Mangal (2006) opine that, Students that have school adjustment problems may not have respect for school authorities, may not cope in a task that is too demanding and challenging, and may not have good relationship with their classmates and teachers. The classroom teacher plays the most strategic role in bringing improvement in the class room environment. And they also help the students to cope in school by providing a conducive classroom environment where the students may feel free to express themselves, by developing in the youngsters a sense of self-respect and self-esteem and complements for work well done, and accepting the individual differences of students. School adjustment could be psychological, academic, social and emotional, Mangal (2007).
Psychologically, a student who is psychologically adjusted in school may be aware of his strengths and weaknesses and may not pretend to be what he is not. Academic, a student who is academically adjusted may overcome learning problems and instructional difficulties. He may make a satisfactory progress in exploratory experience. Socially, a student may be socially adjusted if he has harmonious relationship with the students and teachers. He may have proper understanding of social need, requirements and group goals and may meet effectively with the social requirements of the home, peer groups, culture and the community. Emotionally, a student who is emotionally adjusted may have a stable emotion and control over his emotion. A student who is psychologically, academically, socially and emotionally adjusted may have good school adjustment, (Mangal, 2007).
Operationally, school adjustment can be defined as the process a student adopts in maintaining a balance between his or her academic, social and emotional needs in the school environment in other to attain the student’s desired goal. This implies the ability of the student to cope with all activities that exist in school environment. For classroom teachers to understand the students’ problems in the classroom they should be emotionally intelligent.
Emotional intelligence is one of the psychological constructs which can help an individual to understand his emotion and the emotion of the others. Colman (2005) defined emotional intelligence as the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotion. Ramalingam (2006) defined emotional intelligence as the awareness and ability to manage one’s emotions in a healthy and productive manner. Brackett&Katulak, (2006)stated that, there are four different factors of emotional intelligence which include: perceive emotion, understand emotion, use emotion and control emotion. The perceive emotion, has to do with the ability of an individual to observe one’s emotion and the emotion of others. Understanding emotion has to do with the ability of an individual to have knowledge of his emotion and emotion of others. Use emotion, has to do with applying emotion in the expected area of life. Manage emotion, means the ability of an individual to have control over his emotion and that of others. People who are emotionally intelligent may have good relationship with people around them, they may know how to resolve issues that affect them positively, they may manage conflicts that exist in their environment, and they may not react to issues in a hurry among others individuals who are not emotional intelligent exhibit the following features which include: inability to manage their emotion, they may not have good relationship with people which may lead to emotional outburst They may also have aggressive tendency. A classroom teacher who can use his emotion is emotionally intelligent.
Teachers’ emotional intelligence is the ability of the teachers to monitor, access, express and regulate their own emotions. It also has to do with the ability of classroom teachers to understand and manage their emotions. Mort boy’s (2012) defined teachers’ emotional intelligence as the capacity of the teachers to recognize their own feelings and that of others. Mort boy’s (2012) added that, the qualities of emotionally intelligent teachers include the following; they are approachable, knowledgeable, and manages time well, they are also positive, good listeners, and have a clear direction and respectful. A teacher who is emotionally intelligent may also manipulate his environment in order to achieve his desired goal. In other words, a classroom teacher who is not emotionally intelligent may not manipulate his environment effectively. Emotional Intelligent teacher may have stable emotion and has control over his emotion. Eccles & Roeser (1999) & Dincer, (2007) asserted that, emotionally intelligent teachers are able to mould students from different age groups in the classroom. Goleman, (1998) opines that, emotionally intelligent teachers engage their students in teaching and learning because they know that their teaching behavior and personality can affect self-esteem and school adjustment. Besides a teacher who is emotionally intelligent develops emotional awareness and interpersonal skills such as interacting with people, being receptive, being patient and empathic able to manage their classroom and promote students’ self-esteem and school adjustment.
Emotional intelligent teachers may develop and encourage good relationships with their students and may also design lessons that will build students’ strength and abilities. Teachers’ emotional intelligence could have both positive and negative influence on students in the sense that, if teachers’ emotional intelligence is positively utilized by classroom teachers, it may result to high self-esteem and good school adjustment but if it is negatively utilized by classroom teachers it may lead to low self-esteem and school adjustment problems.
