The impact of Emotional Intelligence on models of teaching approaches

Emotional intelligence is a significant concept in Psychology and Education study programs and fundamental for understanding the different processes of thinking and behavior of teachers, in order to transform emotions into promoters of daily activity. The literature is unanimous in considering that the teaching approaches adopted by teachers, in educational praxis, influence the choices of teaching approaches used in student learning. This fact justifies the importance of associating EI skills with the type of approach that the teacher uses in the classroom. Through a sample of 628 elementary and secondary school teachers, using structural equation models, it was shown that EI is a predictor variable of the types of teaching approaches used by teachers and those with higher EI opt for a more comprehensive approach and less transmissive, with the results being statistically significant. It is also observed that variables gender, academic training, and service time have a significant preponderance in the EI of the teachers in the sample. The main contribution of the article is to emphasize that the teacher's emotional intelligence is essential in choosing the type of teaching approach used in the classroom.