| New teachers often struggle with handling their students and their many responsibilities because of demanding nature of the job. A strong preservice preparation is critical to teachers’ success and increases teacher retention in the profession. This quantitative study examined the association among emotional intelligence, as measured by the Emotional Skills Assessment Process (ESAP), resilience, as measured by the Resilience Scale, grade point average, and Praxis I scores of three different groups of teacher candidates at a state university in western Pennsylvania. A total of 118 teacher candidate participated in the study. The results revealed significant differences in emotional intelligence scores of participants across the three groups. The difference was attributed to leadership, change orientation, and self-esteem scores. Furthermore, the correlation between emotional intelligence scores and resilience was significant. Recommendations included the development of a systematic process to help the preservice teacher candidates enhance their emotional skills and learn how to manage the problem areas as indicated in the ESAP. |
