The Relationship Between Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence And Sense Of Humor, And Students’ Classroom Participation

This study examined the role of teachers’ emotional intelligence (EI) and sense ofhumor (SH) and its impact on students’ class participation and student-teacherrelationshipt. Utilizing the Emotional Intelligence Scale（EIS）to measure teachers’emotional intelligence and Thorson and Powell’s Multidimensional Sense of HumorScale (MSHS) to measure teachers’ sense of humor,31Chinese teachers in grades6come from3public school in Zhucheng Shandong Province completed theself-reporting survey instrument. Students of the teachers completed the Inventory ofTeacher-student Relationship and Inventory of Junior high school students’ classparticipation.Four types of relationships were analyzed:(1) the relationship between emotionalintelligence and sense of humor;(2) if students’ class participation and students’ sexhave a influence on students’ class participation;(3) the relationship between teachers’EI and SH and their students’ class participation.The findings of this research demonstrated that there are significant and positiverelationships between all variables of the study. The factors that impact students’classparticipation include，the students’ sex, the students’ language score.As a whole, girlshave a stronger participation than boys.The students who have high language scoreshave a stranger participation than the students who have middle or poor grades.This study has the possibility of changing hiring and evaluation practices ofteachers, curriculums of teacher preparation programs in institutions of highereducation, and teacher professional development activities. This study may alsoinitiate changes in the value systems within schools so that the psychological isneeded by not only students but also teachers. Positive uses of humor may also beembraced as an instructional tool and a means of effective communication to enhancestudent-teacher relationships due to the findings of this study.