Path analysis of the effects of learning styles, social support and emotional intelligence on academic achievement among TESL teacher trainees in IPG / Azlinda Abd Aziz

Teacher education comes in many shapes and sizes and it is an extremely complex task to prepare teachers for their professional work in public classroom. Teachers must be knowledgeable and highly academic individuals. Institute of Teacher Education in Malaysia (Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia) has a big responsibility to train in service as well as pre-service teachers. Not all trainee teachers were able to perform academically well in the training institution. Without good academic result, chances for them to get early posting would be jeopardized. Inadequacy of concrete evidence to prove which learning styles instruments is the best to use in education and very limited studies available to show that the instrument is capable of testing the validity of learning styles used in education has been a great concern that led this study to take off. This study proposed that learning happens in a social context and there were several factors identified to influence the teacher trainees’ academic achievement. Using the Triadic Reciprocal Determination Model as the theoretical framework, the factors chosen were learning styles, social support and emotional intelligence. This study intended to analyse how these factors correlate and affect the teacher trainees’ academic achievement. The study also proposed emotional intelligence to be the mediator of the hypothesized relationships. A total of 411 TESL teacher trainees were selected to respond to a set of questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on each of the construct then followed by a pool model combining all the constructs being tested for model fit in a measurement model. The trainees revealed collaborative as their preferred learning styles and perceived that the highest support received was from family and friends. They displayed high level of emotional intelligence especially in the dimensions of self-emotion appraisal and use of emotion. Next, structural equation model was carried out and evidently, analysis on the accepted model proved that only learning styles and emotional intelligence had direct significant effect on academic achievement. Social support did not show any significant effect on academic achievement. Interestingly, emotional intelligence existed as an independent construct and does not mediate any relationships between the two constructs and academic achievement. It was suggested that the element of emotional intelligence to be strengthen and enhanced in planning the curriculum for teacher trainees. This is important so that the future generations of teachers will be well balanced in term of cognitive and emotional domains.