Teachers’ dynamics of social intelligence with different pedagogical experience

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the features of social intelligence (SI) in teachers with different lengths of teaching experience. To empirically test the assumption of a positive linear correlation between the level of social intelligence and the length of teaching experience, we used research methods: theoretical – scientific literature analysis and synthesis, research systematization and generalization; empirical – psychodiagnostic testing, questioning, qualitative analysis; mathematical methods of interpretation – percentagerating, standard variance, correlation analysis. The study involved 15 female teachers, aged 25 to 49 years (M=36,3, ϭ=2,7). The survey was conducted using the online service Google Forms. Conclusions. 60% of teachers were diagnosed with middle-level SI, 13.3% above average and 33,7% below average. Statistical analysis of the results of the empirical study was performed using the Spearman correlation r-test. As a result, it was found that in the first group, whose respondents work in the school only from 1 to 5 years, there is a statistically significant positive correlation r=0,527 (p≤0.05). In the second group of respondents with average (5–10 years) and long (11–25 years) pedagogical experience, no statistically significant relationships were found (respectively: r=-0,158, p≥0.05, and r=-0,3, p≥0.05). Thus, an empirical study conducted with teachers, which aimed to determine the impact of teaching experience on the development of social intelligence, showed that in the group where teachers have the least experience there is a positive statistically significant relationship between experience and social intelligence, in contrast, groups where teaching experience was more than 5 years. Accordingly, the prospect of further research is to test the U-shaped dependence of these variables; elucidation of the degree of influence of personal qualities on the social skills of the teacher and his social intelligence. We assume that the level of SI increases at the stage of 5 years of teaching experience, after which the growth rate slows down, or even goes in the opposite direction, and probably after 20–25 years the conspiracy returns to the upward direction of development.