Intelligenza emotiva e creatività a scuola

Success in education is no longer about reproducing content knowledge, but about extrapolating from what we know and applying that knowledge creatively in novel situations; it is also about thinking across the boundaries of disciplines. The process of connecting new knowledge to familiar knowledge, thinking divergently and creatively about novel solutions or about how knowledge can be transferred – are more likely to help students complete the more demanding PISA tasks that are more predictive of tomorrow’s world (Schleicher, 2018). Employers now seek individuals able to think critically and communicate effectively in order to meet the requirements of the new Knowledge Economy (AHELO, 2012; Levy & Murname, 2004). Therefore, the skills taught in education are changing with more emphasis being placed on so called “generic skills”(Clanchy & Ballard, 1995; Crebert, Bates, Bell, Patrick, & Cragnolini, 2004) such as analytic reasoning and evaluation, problem solving, and written communication. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of teachers’ emotional intelligence on their pupils’ creativity and the impact that creativity climate has on students’ creativity. Although some studies in the field of education have been focused on students’ emotional intelligence and on the role that this plays with respect to academic achievement, demonstrating that students with higher emotional intelligence had more success at school (Di Fabio, Giorgi, Majer & Palazzeschi, 2005; Parker, Summerfeldt, Hogan, & Majeski, 2004), other studies have demonstrated that teachers who promote emotional intelligence skills emphasize the value of individual differences, enhance group work and problemsolving ability, and channel students to develop adequate social competences (Kaufhold & Johnson, 2005). Moreover, in their study, Reyes, Brackett and Rivers (2012), attribute student engagement and academic performance at least in part to how teachers promote classroom interactions. In addition, research (Brackett & Simons, 2015) shows that emotional intelligence is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes among children, including improved cognitive and social functioning, psychological well-being and higher- academic performance. Emotional intelligence is also associated with less stress and burnout and classrooms rated higher in emotional intelligence have students that are more engaged, behave in more prosocial ways, and learn better. Additional research shows also that emotional intelligence can be thought and developed in schools (Brackett & Rivers, 2014; Domitrovich, Durlak, Staley, Weissberg, 2011). Therefore, since emotional intelligence can be developed, educators should evaluate their own emotional competence in order to be able to pay special attention to students’ emotional needs. Furthermore, creativity is now seen as a multidimensional and psychosocial phenomenon (Alencar, Fleith & Bruno-Faria, 2010), comprising the combination of cognitive aspects, affective and personality characteristics, in addition to the variables contextual (family, educational and social). The fist objective of this analysis aims at verifying if children’ emotional intelligence predicts their creativity. Moreover, the second objective of this study is to verify if the creativity climate acts as a mediator in the relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and children’ creativity. Indeed, climate, unlike culture, is a localized phenomenon, reflecting experienced environmental press at either the individual or group level (Cooke & Rosseau, 1988). Moreover, despite the apparent importance of climate in shaping creative achievement, it is difficult to say which of the many dimensions of climate is the most important influence on creativity and innovation (Mumford & Hunter, 2005). Thus, the intention is to observe the role that the creativity climate plays in the classroom and in students’ creativity, verifying if the creativity climate perceived by children mediates the relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and children’ creativity. The third objective of this study aims at investigating if the level of Children’ Creativity depends on Teachers’ Emotional intelligence and on the Creativity climate in the classroom. So, this study wants to investigate if the creativity climate moderates the relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and the creativity of children. Method Sample The sample is comprised by 339 students (170 M, 169 F) attending public school in the North of Italy, aged between 8-10 years old , with a mean age of 9.56 years. The sample included teachers of Italian and Mathematic for each class (N=18). The sample was selected from three different schools located in Northern Italy, through school administrators and coordinators of each class. All school were located in urban areas and the average number of students per class was 20. The socioeconomic area where the schools were located was considered middle income. Data Collection and Analysis A quantitative approach was used in this exploratory study. In order to investigate the influence of emotional intelligence on creativity the data analysis was carried out through multiple linear regressions using the IBM SPSS Statistical software (version 23). Creativity Dimensions (fluidity, originality, flexibility and elaboration) have been considered singularly. Global Creativity was obtained by summing the different dimensions. To verify the second objective of this study was conducted a path analysis with Mplus (version 7) (Muthén & Muthén, 2012). Since the hypotheses formulated went in a specific direction the relationships were considered significant even when associated with a probability value (p-value) less than or equal to 0.10, given that the significance was calculated with two tails. To investigate the third aim of this study was used a two-way factorial ANOVA 2x2 in which the factors between the subjects are emotional intelligence (factor at two levels: High and low) and Climate of Creativity (factor at two levels: high and low) and the dependent variable is the level of global creativity. References AHELO, (2012). Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes, OECD library Alencar E., Fleith D., & Bruno-Faria, (2010). A medida da criatividade: possibilidades e desafios. 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