Investigating the Development of Emotional Intelligence as a Significant Goal of Education Case Study : Fourth Year Middle School Pupils –Tiaret city-

Abstract

The development of emotional intelligence became the centre of interest in several domains especially the educational one. Therefore, when it comes to the Algerian’s educational system, an investigation was needed to see why the development of emotional intelligence should be considered as a significant goal of education and investigate how teachers develop it within their learners to improve the teaching-learning process. Therefore, a mixed methods approach was used (qualitative and quantitative). We took Tiaret city's fourth year middle schools EFL teachers and pupils as a case of study. An interview was carried out with 5 teachers from Bikouch Bilahcen, Ait Omran Mohamed, Hamdani Malika and Mofdi Zakaria with questionnaires given randomly to 30 pupils in addition to an observation of their classrooms for a period of two weeks which was based on Goleman's EI model. After collecting data and analysing it, the findings showed that the majority of teachers are not aware of the importance of EI factor as a tool of teaching which led their pupils to have a low EI level with a bad performance and behaviour. Yet, the teachers who are aware of it, use different teaching techniques and methods that developed theirpupils’ EI in which resulted in a good performance and behaviour. To conclude, the Algerian’s educational system should reinforce teachers training with the awareness of the importance of EI factor as a tool of teaching to improve the teaching learning process.