Emotional Intelligence and Self-efficacy of Preschool Teachers

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teachers in Johor area.  In this study, the independent variable is preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and dependent variable is preschool teachers’ self-efficacy. This study’s aim to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teachers in Johor area. Besides that, it also investigate the differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor area. For the research design, researcher will use cross-sectional design and causal design to conduct this study. In this study, two separate questionnaires will be distributed to 60 preschool teachers in Johor area. In these 60 preschool teachers, 30 participants will be from public preschool and 30 participants will be from private preschool. Participants will need to complete The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) to assess their emotional intelligence and General Self-Efficacy Scale to assess their self-efficacy. In The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i), Cronbach’s alpha coefficient value was 0.96 and General Self-Efficacy Scale Cronbach’s alphas between 0.76 and 0.90. In this study, researcher used convenience sampling method to conduct the sampling. In data analysis, researcher will use Pearson Correlation to test the relationship  between  emotional  intelligence  and  self-efficacy  of preschool teachers and Independent-Samples T-Test to test the differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers. There is a  significant  relationship  between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of preschool teachers in Johor. Besides that, the comparison of emotional intelligence and self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers are significant differences in Johor.

I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

This is a study about relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher and the comparison of emotional intelligence and self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers. In this study, there is one independent variable and one dependent variable which independent variable is preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and dependent variable is preschool teachers’ self-efficacy.

This study will conduct in Johor area and it will need total 60 participants to participate. Preschool teacher will be needed to participate in this study. Besides that, this study will compare the level of self-efficacy between private preschool teachers and public preschool teachers. Therefore, for the participants, it will need 30 preschool teachers who work in private preschools and 30 preschool teachers who work in public preschools to participate.

Emotional intelligence and self- efficacy were found very important to teachers (Ortaçtepe et.al, 2015). They can help teachers more effective of doing their job. Besides that, for preschool teachers, a good emotional intelligence and self- efficacy may determine children behaviour.

1.2 Background of Study

Emotional intelligence was found by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer in 1990. Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer described Emotional intelligence is ‘a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor themselves and others’ feelings  and emotions, to discriminate between them, and use that information to guide their minds and actions’. In 1995, Daniel Goleman brought this theory to his book Emotional Intelligence. In this book, it mentioned that emotional intelligence is important to the business world and business leaders (Goleman, 1995). Emotional Intelligence (also called as EI) is the combination of two component terms, intelligence and emotions. It is defined as “the  ability  to  perceive emotions; to  visit and generate  emotions to assist  with thought; to understand emotions and emotional knowledge; and to  effectively regulate emotions  and promote emotional and intellectual growth’ (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).

Self-efficacy was developed by Alberta Bandura. It is the belief that a person has an ability by competing a task given by others or activity related to that competency (Bandura, Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency, 1982). According to Bandura, people have high self-efficacy will have highly guaranteed in their ability to approach difficult task and staying involved in activities (Bandura, 1982). Other than that, people with low self-efficacy will believe that they are unable to complete their work. They will feel stress and depress when they think that the work is tough (Ream & Hutchinson, 2010).

At past, employers hire the employees they want according Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Employers will use IQ test to measure employees’ job performance and decide which employees they want hire (Menkes, 2005). Nowadays, Many employers are beginning to realize that emotional intelligence capabilities are critical in the workplace (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001) especially teachers. People recognize that life success is not only depends on IQ but also including Emotional Intelligence (EI). According to a research result, Malaysia teachers’ level of emotional intelligence is in moderate level (Mustafa, Yahya, Razzaq, Daud, & Ahad, 2014). In Malaysia, there are some researches showed that the main reason that affect teachers’ emotional is students that do not follow their instructions (Ishak, Mustapha, Mahmud, & Ariffin, 2014). Besides that, heavy workload for teachers also influence teacher’s emotional intelligence (Ishak, Mustapha, Mahmud, & Ariffin, 2014). These phenomena can affect teacher’s self-efficacy too.

According to Bandura (1997), self-efficacy beliefs play an important role that affect our thinking, feeling and motivation (Bandura, 1997). In Malaysia, self-efficacy seldom emphasis by employers. Most of the employees have low self-efficacy in their workplace because a lot of work and stress influence their emotional intelligence. In several researches, there show that emotional intelligence will affect self-efficacy. However, according the results from the 2013 OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), Malaysia teachers have an average sense of self-efficacy (Schleicher, 2015). Therefore, a sense of self-efficacy may affect their job satisfaction.

In Malaysia, public preschool and private preschool are totally different in their settings and goals. For the public preschool government had made a standard curriculum to let public preschool follow. For the private preschool, they have their own curriculum and teaching strategic (Lily & Mohamed, 2013). Besides that, the teacher- students’ ratio are different between public preschool and private preschool. According to Lily and Mohamed (2013), public preschool ratio is 1: 25 and private preschool ratio is 1: 15. Therefore, types of school may affect teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy too.

1.3 Problem Statement

Nowadays, preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence was emphasized around the world. Researches showed that emotional intelligence is very important to teacher, it can affect teachers themselves and students too. If a teacher has a good emotional intelligence, it will help to improve student’s learning (Zakrzewski, 2013). In 21^st century, we encourage teachers give student an active learning styles but not passive learning. For active learning, teachers’ emotional intelligence and self-efficacy are very important. In active learning, there are elements such as critical thinking and the ability of solving problems. These elements of active learning required has a full of secure emotional intelligence so that learners can take effectively (Wossenie, 2014). In preschool, teachers have a good emotional intelligence can help to promote active learning in the classroom. Teachers’ emotional may influence children’s emotional too. There is a research shows that emotional intellectual skills play a vital role  in  children’s  academic,  personal and  social  life, beyond the influence of personal and general intelligence (Brackett & Katulak, 2007). Emotions drive attention which will influence learning, memory and behaviour (Brackett & Katulak, 2007). A stable emotions can help children to stay focused in class so that children may learn with active learning. Therefore, we sure that emotional intelligence is important to teachers. Currently, Malaysia Pre-School Curriculum Standard encouraged having active learning in the class so that children may learn from it. Therefore, there is a value of doing this research.

Besides that, emotional intelligence will affect teachers’ self-efficacy. There are a lot of researches show that there are significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy (Gürola. A., Özercana. M., YalçÕn H., 2010). However, there is seldom research show about the relationship between preschool teacher’s emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. Therefore, the relationship of emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of preschool teachers is still unclear. Furthermore, there is seldom similar research conducted in Johor, Malaysia. Thus, the purpose of this research is to find out the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teachers in Johor, Malaysia.

Furthermore, there are seldom of research showed that the differences of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Malaysia. As we know that, both public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’ working environment and salary paid are totally different. Therefore, there is a value to conduct this research.

1.4 Theoretical Framework

1.4.1 Emotional Intelligence

Nowadays, there are two types’ models of  emotional  intelligence which are skill-based model which proposed by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer in 1990 and mixed model which is proposed by Daniel Goleman in 1995. According to Salovey and Mayer, they defined EI as the ability to manage one’s own feelings and emotions. Later on, Goleman defined emotional intelligence as ‘to understand their own feelings, feel the feeling of others and to enhance the way life to adjust the emotional’ (Goleman, 1995). In Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence, there are five main components in the emotional intelligence which are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. The questionnaire that researcher measure emotional intelligence in this study have seven dimensions which was developed according to these five components. In this five components, self-awareness is the ability of to understand and recognize self- emotions. Besides that, it also an ability of recognize others emotions (Goleman, 1995). Self- regulation is the ability to control self- emotions (Goleman, 1995). Motivation is an ability to cheer up others to achieve the same goals and also the ability of achieve a desired (Goleman, 1995). Empathy is the ability of understanding others emotions, and skills of treating others according to others’ emotions (Goleman, 1995). Lastly, social skills is the ability of managing the relationship with others such as family, friends and strangers (Goleman, 1995).

Teachers’ emotional intelligence will be affected by these components. This mean that these components will determine how we understand and express ourselves effectively, understand others and connect with them. Therefore, emotional intelligence is very important in education field because emotional intelligence is the first concerned of being teacher. A positive emotional intelligence may influence students’ emotional intelligence. Besides that, teachers that have positive emotional intelligence may have a good interact with students. This may help to improve students’ learning and academic.

1.4.2 Self-Efficacy

In social cognitive theory, there are four components to organize social cognitive theory. These components are self- observation, self- evaluation, self- reaction and self- efficacy. Self-observation means that observing oneself can inform and motivate (Bandura, 1988). Self- evaluation means that people compare themselves with their goals (Bandura, 1988). Self- reaction is a motivation that to help the people achieve the goals that they desired (Bandura, 1988). Lastly, self- efficacy is the belief that believe themselves to complete the task (Bandura, 1988).

Self-efficacy theory is developed by Albert Bandura in 1986. Self-efficacy was originated from Social Cognitive and believe that a person has the ability to produce this effect by completing a specific task or activity related to that ability (Bandura, 1982). According to Social Cognitive Model by Bandura, it has three factors affect self-efficacy which are behaviours, environment and cognitive. Behaviours is an action response when a people or animals meet any situation. According to Gecas (2004), people behave in a way that carries out their initial beliefs. In self-efficacy, people believe that their behaviour can produce the results they expect, they have no power in the face of difficulties or persist (Pajares, 2009). For the preschool teachers, self- efficacy is important to them because self- efficacy is their belief of working attitude.

1.5 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of the study is shown in the table. The independent variable of this study is preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and the dependent variable is preschool teachers’ self-efficacy. In this study, it is to identify the relationship between preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in Johor, Malaysia. Besides that, it also measures self-efficacy of public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

The independent variable of this study is about emotional intelligence. The questionnaire that used was developed by Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff, Ahmad Fuad Abdul Rahim and Ab Rahman Esa. This questionnaire was designed according to Goleman’s emotional intelligence theory. Contributors investigated from Goleman’s emotional intelligence theory than they grouped emotional intelligence into seven dimensions. These seven dimensions are emotional control, emotional maturity, emotional conscientiousness, emotional awareness, emotional commitment, emotional fortitude and emotional expression.

In the dependent variable, the questionnaire that measures self-efficacy is using General Self-Efficacy Scale which was developed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995). The general self-efficacy scale is related to emotion, optimism and job satisfaction. Finding a negative coefficients of depression, stress, health complaints, burnout and anxiety. In dependent variable, it also compare the differences between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

Independent Variable

Preschool Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional Control
• Emotional Maturity
• Emotional Conscientiousness
• Emotional Awareness
• Emotional Commitment
• Emotional Fortitude
• Emotional Expression

Dependent Variable

Preschool Teachers’ Self-Efficacy

Figure 1

1.6 Objective of Study

This study is looking into emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher in Johor, Malaysia. Particularly, it defines 3 objectives:

1. To investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher in Johor.
2. To compare the self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor.
3. To compare the emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor.

1.7 Research Questions

This study is looking into emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher in Johor, Malaysia. Particularly, it defines 3 research questions:

Q1. Is there any significant relationship between preschool teachers’ Emotional Intelligence and self-efficacy in Johor?

Q2. Is there any significant differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor?

Q3. Is there any significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor?

1.8 Hypothesis

H1: There is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in Johor.

According to Ream and Hutchinson (2010), the research used Pearson Correlation to analyse the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. In the study, the result showed that a moderate positive correlation was found in the study. Therefore, there is a significant linear relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in this study (REAM & Hutchinson, 2010).

Besides that, according to the research developed by Matthews and Plessis (2012), the result also showed that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy among primary teachers (Matthews & Plessis, 2012)

H2: There is a no significant differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor.

According to the research ‘Emotional Intelligence Skills and Self-efficacy Levels: Physical Education Teachers’ Perspective’, the result showed that Physical Education teachers’ self- efficacy level were between 52%- 82%. In the result, they still can improve their self- efficacy level and become stronger.

According to Girma Wossenie’s research (2014), English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Bahir Dar Town, Ethiopia had a low sense of self- efficacy. However, in other researches, there is high self- efficacy level of EFL teachers and EFL teachers should have high sense of self- efficacy since they need to manage their class (Wossenie, 2014).

H3: There is a significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor.

According to the research ‘Emotional Intelligence Skills and Self-efficacy Levels: Physical Education Teachers’ Perspective’, there is a statistically significant differences between public school’s physical education teachers and private school’s physical education teachers. From the research, they showed that government schools’ teachers care more about the emotional intelligence rather than private schools’ teachers (AL-Adwan & Khayat, 2016)

1.9 Significance of the Study

The purpose significant of this research is to know the important of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. In this study, it will investigate how the emotional intelligence influence self-efficacy.

Nowadays, emotional intelligence are emphasized by people around the world especially teacher. There are little researches showed that emotional intelligence is very important to teacher, it can affect teachers themselves and students too. If a teacher has a good emotional intelligence, it will help to improve student’s learning (Zakrzewski, 2013). In the other hand, if a teacher has a negative emotional intelligence, it will affect student’s emotional intelligence too. For example, a teacher who has a good emotional intelligence may analyse the situation in intellect. When the problem happened, teacher with good emotional intelligence may find out the origin of the problem but not punish the student(s) directly. Besides that, teacher’s emotional intelligence also will affect students’ learning progress. If students do not understand in learning, teacher with positive emotional intelligence will teach students in patiently but teacher with negative emotional intelligence may not do that. Therefore, it will influence student’s learning progress. In this study, it will specifically investigate preschool teacher because we know that children’s first five years are important to them. In these five years, children are critical for development (Grantham-McGregor, S., Cheung, Y. B., Cueto, S., Glewwe, P., Richter, L., Strupp, B., 2007). These years may help children to shape their behaviour. Preschool teachers occupy children’s important years and preschool teachers consider close to children, even some of the children are closer with their teachers than their parents. Therefore, preschool teacher’s emotional intelligence is very important.

Besides that, self-efficacy is also important to preschool teachers. Preschool teachers may meet more challenges than primary and secondary teachers. They need to face children, parents, and a lot of paperwork. Although they have a lot of work to do, but they do not have a same equity salary (Munday, 2016). Therefore, preschool teachers’ need a positive sense of self-efficacy so that they can belief themselves. If a preschool teacher have low sense of self-efficacy, s/he will affect children’s growing. For example, a research shows that if teachers have low sense of self-efficacy, they could not give children an active learning. As we know that nowadays people admire active learning and children will learn more in active learning style.

Lastly, in Malaysia, public preschool and private preschool are different. Public preschool is government authorities and private preschool is private institution authorities. Besides that, these two types of preschool working environment are different. In public preschool, teachers may face many children in a time so that they may not handle well. In private preschool, they would follow the ratio of teacher- students and teachers may easy to handle children.

1.10 Definition of Term

1.10.1 Constitutional Definition

Emotional Intelligence

The term emotional intelligence is popular by Goleman (1995) but was found by Salovey and Mayer (1990). Salovey and Mayer described emotional intelligence as it involves the ability of individuals to understand emotions and dealing with emotional information to enhance cognitive processes and normative behaviour (Brackett & Katulak, 2007). In this study, we use Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence theory which have five components in this theory. These five components are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. However, in this study, researcher will use questionnaire call The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) and it was developed according to Goleman’s theory. In this questionnaire, it grouped emotional intelligence in seven dimensions which are emotional control, emotional maturity, emotional conscientiousness, emotional awareness, emotional commitment, emotional fortitude and emotional expression. Emotional intelligence consists of specific areas such as knowing their emotions, realizing feelings, and self-motivation. In addition, emotional intelligence is the ability of people to respond positively to his / her emotions and other emotions (Zeidner, 2009).

Self-Efficacy

The term self-efficacy is developed by Albert Bandura. It was originated form social cognitive theory. It is believe that a person has the ability to produce this effect by completing a specific task or activity related to that ability (Bandura, 1982). In self-efficacy, it will motivate people to complete the outcome and achieve the certain goals. Besides that, social cognitive theory mentioned that there are three factors influence self-efficacy which are behaviours, environment and cognitive. These factors are related with each other. However, cognitive is the most important in self-efficacy theory. Self-efficacy is a positive psychology and it will make people become health.

Pre-School

Pre-school is let children go to learn something basic knowledge before they go for elementary school. In Malaysia, preschool has divided in two groups which are TASKA and TADIKA. For TASKA, it is for children who age 3 to 4 years old. For TADIKA, it is for children for age 5 to 6 years old.

1.10.2 Operational Definition

Emotional Intelligence

According to The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i), emotional intelligence has grouped into seven dimensions which are emotional control, emotional maturity, emotional conscientiousness, emotional awareness, emotional commitment, emotional fortitude and emotional expression. According to USMEQ-I, emotional control means that the ability of self-control from disruptive emotions and impulsive feelings (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). A person with good emotional control can keep calm although s/he is in pressure environment. Emotional maturity is known as the ability to promote and guide emotional tendencies to achieve and achieve the desired goals (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). Emotional conscientiousness means that the ability of responsibility and maintaining a person’s performance (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). Emotional awareness means that the ability of knowing others such as their emotional and internal states (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). Emotional commitment is an ability of working with others with a common goals that they want achieve it (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). Emotional fortitude means that the ability of solving problems that they meet and resolve the problem with a good solution (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). Emotional expression is an ability that communicate and adjust emotions, thoughts and behaviours, change the situation and situation (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010).

Self- Efficacy

Self- efficacy is an important role to a leader. Self- efficacy may lead a person’s internal self- confidence and it can determine the leader what desires he wants (Murphy & Johnson, 2016). Self- efficacy is a belief in a person ability to achieve the level they want achieve (Bandura, 1986). Research showed that person with high self- efficacy will perform better than the person with low self- efficacy (Bandura, 1997). Self- efficacy will influence the performance through intervening such as effort, strategy uses and goals (Bandura, 2012).

Pre-School

Researcher has divided preschool in two group which are public preschool and private preschool. For public preschool, it is supported by government. All funding are come from government. Public preschool is cheap and it is the first choice to low income family. In Malaysia, public preschool did not provide day care service. Therefore, they operational hour are short (Mustafa & Azman, 2014)

Private preschool is set up by private sector. Normally private preschool will be more expensive than public preschool and those fees will be paid by parents. Most of the private preschools have provided day care service, so their operational time are long. Normally follow the working hour (8.00 am-6.00 pm) (Mustafa & Azman, 2014).

II Literature Review

Introduction

In this chapter, researcher will provide review based on preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self-efficacy, starting with the review of 1) Emotional Intelligence, 2) Self-Efficacy and 3) Relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher.

2.1 Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is an ability to understand and manage own feelings and emotions. Besides that, it also defined as an ability of recognize and understand others emotions and feelings (Goleman, 1995). Emotional intelligence is very important in early childhood field based on a research (Kılıç, S., 2015). The study of early childhood points to the concept of emotional abilities, emotions and emotions related to emotions, such as expression, awareness, labelling and emotional facial expressions and situational clues of emotion (Kılıç, S., 2015). Children’s emotional intelligence will be affected by adults’ emotional intelligence. Besides that, children’s socialization will determined by how parents react towards the emotions of children such as giving children reward or punishment (Kılıç, S., 2015). Children’s socialization not only will determine by parents but also will determine by teachers too. It is because except parents, teachers are the second adults that the most frequently contact with children (Boyd, J et al., 2005). Therefore, in this study, researcher want to find out preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence so that it can help to children’s socialization.

According to Anoj Raj and Deepti Uniyal research, there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. The result showed that when teacher’s emotional intelligence is high, their job satisfaction also high. This means that emotional intelligence is in a very important role in teacher’s life. Besides that, their study also mentioned that teacher’s emotional intelligence is very important to students as it serve students a holistic development (Raj, A., & Uniyal, D., 2016). Anoj Raj and Deepti Uniyal research was found the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction and our research is to find out the relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy. Emotional intelligence not only will affect self- efficacy but also teachers’ job satisfaction (Sy, T.; Tramm, S. and O Hara, L.A., 2006). In the research, author wrote in very detailed.

According to Sandhya Mehta’s research, in India, there are significant differences emotional intelligence between public school teachers and private school teachers. In India, public school teachers have higher emotional intelligence than private school teachers (Mehta, S., 2015). In this study, researcher conduct the study in Johor, Malaysia. However, this research was conducted in India and it is not suitable for using in Malaysia.

According to Aurora Adina Colomeischia and Tudor Colomeischia (2014), their research found that there is significant differences of teachers’ emotional intelligence level regard the work mentality and job satisfaction. This mean that teachers who have high emotional intelligence have also high positive working attitude. Besides that, they also found that the teaching experience also will affect the level of emotional intelligence. The teaching experiences higher, the level of emotional intelligence higher too. In this research, it is lack of limitations (Brutus, Stéphane et al., 2013). Besides that, the research was not detailed so that the aim of the research will not be clear.

According to Noriah Mohd Ishak, I. Piet Iskandar and Ridzauddin Ramli (2010), their research showed that daily school’s teachers and residential school’s teachers have a similar emotional intelligence profiles. However, in emotional intelligence, residential schools’ teachers’ 5 components were higher than daily schools’ teachers. These 5 components are self-awareness, self- regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skills. Daily school teachers another 2 emotional intelligence components which are spiritual awareness and maturity were higher than residential school teachers. Besides that, the research also found that teachers had low average for social skills component. If teachers low in social skills, they would not support by their students (Ishak, Iskandar & Ramli, 2010). In this research, it was lack of limitations. Limitations are important because it will influence the results of the study (Brutus, Stéphane et al., 2013). Researchers may add in some limitations that they met in this research.

2.2 Self-Efficacy

According to Mustafa Dogru and Tuna Gencosman research, the study is to investigate in respect of various variables the self-efficacy of elementary school teachers in using information technologies in education (Dogru, M., & Gencosman, T., 2015). As the result, the self-efficacy of elementary school teachers in using educational technology is at good level. As this study had mentioned that self-confident teachers make more efforts in teaching, they are more eager to learn the teaching process, and in the selection of methods and techniques, so their implementation of the curriculum more successful (Browers & Tomic, 2000; Friedman and Kass, 2001; Tschannen-Moren & Hoy, 2001; Dogru, M., & Gencoman, T., 2015). In this research, it only investigate elementary school but not divide them in two groups which are public elementary school and private elementary school. The researchers can find different types of school and their self- efficacy levels in using educational technology so that they can know the differences of different types of school.

According to Almeida, C. M., Jameson, J. M., Riesen, T., & McDonnell, J. research,  the study is examined pre-service special education teachers’ perceptions of their own computer use and self-efficacy with new technologies or how these perceptions may impact their educational and professional practice (Almeida, C. M., Jameson, J. M., Riesen, T., & McDonnell, J, 2016). In this study, they found that teachers’ self-efficacy related to computer use was becoming more and more important for special education (Almeida, C. M., Jameson, J. M., Riesen, T., & McDonnell, J, 2016). Special need teachers need to use computer to teach variety of skills to students with disabilities. Therefore, their self-efficacy are very important to students. In the results, there is a positive relationship between self-efficacy and experiences with computers of preservice special need teacher.

According to Aurora Adina Colomeischia and Tudor Colomeischia (2014), their research found that there are significant self- efficacy regarding the general work satisfaction. This mean that when teachers’ self- efficacy is high, they also have positive attitude towards work. Besides that, teachers with high self- efficacy have more job satisfied than teacher with low self- efficacy. In this research, there was no future recommendations and it is hard to do future research in this topic. Recommendations are important because its highlight the range of corrective steps so that it’s allowed researcher would know what the action should take in the future (Biggam, J., 2011; Sekaran, U., and Bougie, R., 2013). Researcher may add more recommendations in the research article so that other researchers may use their research as reference.

According to Irfan Yildirim (2015), his research ‘A Study on Physical Education Teachers: The Correlation between Self- Efficacy and Job Satisfaction’ showed that there was a relationship between self- efficacy and job satisfaction on physical education teachers. The results showed that when self- efficacy increase 1 point, physical education teachers’ job satisfaction will increase 0.3 point. In the opposite, when teachers’ self- efficacy decrease 1 point, their job satisfaction will decrease 0.3 point. Therefore, teachers’ self- efficacy will determine their job satisfaction. Teachers with self- efficacy dedicate themselves to the teaching profession more and spend more effort in teaching. Thus, they contribute more effort and motivation to the students, they will contribute their job satisfaction through the pleasure (Yildirim, 2015). For this research, it is very detail in describing the results of self- efficacy and job satisfaction.

In a research by Maria Martins, João Costa and Marcos Onofre, they found that teachers’ self- efficacy strengths was connected to teachers- students relationship and discipline promotion. It means that when teachers and students relationship were good, teachers’ self- efficacy will be increase. In opposite, when teachers and students relationship were bad, teachers’ self- efficacy will be decrease (Maria, Costa & Onofre, 2015). In this research, it is lack of recommendations and limitations and others do not know what further action should take (Biggam, J., 2011; Sekaran, U., and Bougie, R., 2013). Thus, it was hard to conduct future research.

According to Manzar and Lijie (2015), their research found that female teachers’ self- efficacy was higher than male teachers’ self- efficacy. However, the research explained that female teachers’ self- efficacy was higher than male teachers’ self- efficacy is because in primary female teachers is more than male teachers (Manzar& Lijie, 2015). Therefore, the reason made the results showed at above. In this research, researchers need to do deeper in this research. Besides that, the result of ‘Female primary school teachers will reflect more teacher related self-efficacy than male teachers’ may not be accurate because the researchers did not do the normality test so that the result wold not be too different (Pallet, 2013). Thus, this result may not accuracy.

2.3 Relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher

According to Aysun Gürola, Mümine Güher Özercana and Hülya YalçÕna research, the purpose of the study is to compare the relationship between pre-service teachers’ emotional intelligence and their self-efficacy. In this study, the result showed that there is a positive significant correlation between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of pre-service teachers (Gürola, Özercana, & YalçÕna, 2010). Thus, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy are positively related to teacher educators and pre-service teachers, since each of them has the ability to develop, each of which has a positive impact on others (Gürola, Özercana, & YalçÕna, 2010). In the study, they discuss about the pre- service teachers’ perceptions of self- efficacy and emotional intelligence. It is very important to know pre- service teachers’ perceptions of self- efficacy and emotional intelligence because before they get into service, they need to know how high their emotional intelligence and self- efficacy are. After the results were come out, the related department or universities may do some actions to increase their emotional intelligence and self- efficacy.

According to research by Zahra Abdolvahabi, Sara Bagheri, and Firouz Kioumarsi, their results is statically significant (Abdolvahabi, Bagheri, & Kioumarsi, 2012). The study mentioned that physical education teachers’ emotional intelligence are high, their job self-efficacy will be high too (Abdolvahabi, Bagheri, & Kioumarsi, 2012). In this study, it was lack of limitations and future recommendations. Limitations are important because it will influence the results of the study (Brutus, Stéphane et al., 2013). Besides that, future recommendations allowed researchers to highlight the range of corrective (Biggam, J., 2011; Sekaran, U., and Bougie, R., 2013). Therefore, readers or future researchers who want to conduct this kind of study do not know what should improve in the study.

According to Kurt Spencer Ream’s research (2010), the result showed that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of first year and second year principals (Ream, 2010). However, the relationship connection is not so strong and it only had moderate relationship. In this article, there is not much explanation about its results so researcher cannot get the further discussion.

According to Shameema Matthews (2012), their research have moderate positive relationship (Matthews, 2012). Besides that, they also found that there is also no significant differences in levels of emotional intelligence and levels of self- efficacy based on age, race and gender. In the research, they found that teachers’ self- efficacy could promote the development of emotional intelligence (Matthews, 2012). Other than that, high emotional intelligence and high self- efficacy may develop high emotional commitment (Salami, 2007).

According to Girma Wossenie (2014), the result showed that there was a positive strong relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of EFL teachers. This result means that EFL teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy belief can be nurtured and developed since they influenced each other (Wossenie, 2014). This research is a very detail research. It fully explained the relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy. Besides that, it explained the importance of emotional intelligence and self- efficacy in dept.

According to Fatima Eid Zaid AL-Adwan and Majed Mohammad Al – Khayat (2016), their research showed that there was strong relationship between the emotional intelligence skills and self- efficacy level among physical education teachers. Besides that, they also found that there were emotional intelligence differences between public physical education teachers and private physical education teachers. In their results, it showed that public physical education teachers’ emotional intelligence were higher than private physical education teachers. Besides that, this study suggested to the relationship between emotional intelligence level and self- efficacy for the physical education teachers should be conducted in future. They also suggested that the study of emotional intelligence skills should be taught in both government and private universities (Adwan & Khayat, 2016). Not only should the study of emotional intelligence skills be taught in both government and private universities but study of self- efficacy skills also should be taught too.

According to Annamaria Di Fabio and Letizia Palazzeschi (2008), their research showed that there is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy in Italy High School teachers. They found that higher emotional intelligence that teachers have, the higher self- efficacy that teachers have so that they will more active in manage the classroom, motivate and attract students, and take appropriate teaching strategies (Fabio& Palazzeschi, 2008). In this study, they may give teachers more training courses so that teachers may increase their emotional intelligence. Besides that, school may reduce teachers’ work so teachers’ emotional intelligence would not be decrease.

III METHODOLOGY

Introduction

In this chapter, researcher will discuss about the method that will use in this study. There are four components in this chapter which are research design, measurement procedure and instrumentation, sampling and participants and data collection and analysis.

In this study, researcher will use two questionnaires to collect data. One questionnaire is The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) which is to collect emotional intelligence data. Another questionnaire is General Self-Efficacy Scale which is for self-efficacy data.

3.1 Research Design

This study is using quantitative research by using questionnaire to carry out the study the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher in Johor area. Quantitative research is the collection and analysis of numerical data to describe, explain and predict (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). In this study, the research design that used is cross-sectional designs and causal design. Cross-sectional designs is one which data are collected from selected individuals at a single point in time (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). By using cross-sectional designs, researcher will use questionnaire to conduct this study. In this study, the questionnaire of The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) and General Self-Efficacy Scale will be used in this study. Cross-sectional design is the most quickly, easy to perform (Sedgwick, 2014). As this study has only three months to complete, so this design is the most suitable for conducting in this study as this design is quick and easy to perform.

Causal design is measured what impact a specific change will have on existing norms and assumptions (Eugene & Christine, 2016). This means that the result of dependent variable will be determined by independent variable’s result. In this study, self- efficacy (dependent variable) will be influenced by emotional intelligence (independent variable). Therefore, when preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence is increase, their self- efficacy will increase too. In the other words, when preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence is low, their self- efficacy will low too.

3.2 Measurement Procedure and Instrumentation

3.2.1 The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i)

This questionnaire is developed by Dr Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff, Dr Ahmad Fuad Abdul Rahim and Prof Dr Ab Rahman Esa which designed according to Daniel Goleman’s theory. This questionnaire was developed in year 2010 and published in Malaysia. The origin of this questionnaire is designed for measure medical student’s emotional intelligence in Malaysia. For this questionnaire, it was designed based on Daniel Goleman’s theory- mixed- model theoretical approach of emotional intelligence. Therefore, it has included seven dimensions in emotional intelligence which are emotional control, emotional maturity, emotional conscientiousness, emotional awareness, emotional commitment, emotional fortitude and emotional expression. Besides that, this questionnaire is designed according Malaysia’s culture and values so that this questionnaire will more suitable to use in Malaysia (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). Other than that, this questionnaire also suitable to measure other adults’ emotional intelligence but not only measure medical students.

In this questionnaire, it has 46 items on a 5 point Likert Scale which 0 indicates that the situation not like me, 1 indicates that the situation applies about a bit like me, 2 indicates that the situation quite like me, 3 indicates that the situation a lot like me and 4 indicates that the situation totally like me. In this questionnaire, the contributors divided these 46 items into eight components which are the seven components in emotional intelligence (emotional control, emotional maturity, emotional conscientiousness, emotional awareness, emotional commitment, emotional fortitude and emotional expression) and faking index. Faking index measures whether the respondents have answer the questions honestly (Yusoff, Rahim, & Esa, 2010). For emotional control, there are 9 items in this components; 8 items in emotional maturity; 5 items in emotional conscientiousness; 5 items fall in emotional awareness. Besides that, there have 4 items fall in each components which are emotional commitment, emotional fortitude and emotional expression. Other than that, there have another 7 items classify as faking index.

An internal reliability for The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) used Cronbach’s alpha coefficient value was 0.96.

For the validity, this questionnaire was done by 469 medical students who came from all over Malaysia. Therefore, this questionnaire was verified that it can be used.

For the scoring method, the contributors divided 46 items into two sections which is section A and section B. Both of the sections have 23 items in each section. At first, researcher will total up section A and section B. After that, the sum of each components will be divided by the items that they have. For example, emotional control has 9 items and researcher will divide the sum of the emotional control by 9. Lastly, researcher will total up the seven components and divide them in 39. It is because researcher need to minus the faking index’s items.

After calculate the score of emotional intelligence, it will categorize into three level which are low, average and high level. In low level, the total score will be within 0-1.20. In average level, the total score will be within 1.21-2.80. The high level total score will be within in 2.81-4.00.

3.2.2 General Self- Efficacy Scale

General Self-Efficacy Scale was developed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995). The purpose of doing this questionnaire was created to assess the general sense of self-efficacy, the purpose is to predict in the face of a variety of stressful life events, to deal with daily trouble and adaptation (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995).

Internal reliability for General Self-Efficacy Scale used Cronbach’s alphas between 0.76 and 0.90.

For the validity, the General Self-Efficacy Scale is correlated to emotion, optimism, and work satisfaction. Negative coefficients were found for depression, stress, health complaints, burnout, and anxiety (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995).

In this questionnaire, there are 10 items on a 4 point Likert Scale which 1 means not at all true, 2 means hardly true, 3 means moderately true and 4 means exactly true.

For this questionnaire, the total score is calculated by finding the sum of the all items. For the GSE, the total score ranges between 10 and 40, with a higher score indicating more self-efficacy.

3.3 Sampling and Participants

3.3.1 Sampling

In this study, researcher will used convenience sampling to conduct as the sampling. Convenience sampling also called as accidental sampling or haphazard sampling. It is the process of including whoever happens to be available at the time (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). In other words, this sampling method involves making it easy for participants to find them wherever they are. Researcher uses this method to collect data because research only have three months period to complete this study. As this method is the fastest method to collect the data.

3.3.2 Population

For the population, researcher has included participant who are Malaysian preschool teachers in Johor area which are Johor Bahru, Kulai Jaya, Kluang, Kota Tinggi, Batu Pahat, Pontian, Mersing, Muar, Segamat and Ledang. Emotional Intelligence questionnaire and General Self-Efficacy Scale questionnaire will be filled by participants. In this study, the total number of participants of preschool teachers are 60 respondents. In these participants, it include 30 preschool teachers who working in public preschool and another 30 preschool teachers who working in private preschool.

3.4 Data Collection and Analysis

3.4.1 Data Collection

For the data collection, researcher will apply survey method to do this study. A survey is an instrument to collect data that describe one or more characteristics of a specific population (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). The questionnaires included The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) and General Self-Efficacy Scale. Other than that, these questionnaire will be used to evaluate preschool teacher emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. Besides that, when distribution the questionnaire to participants, researcher will face to face to the participants so that researcher can explain the questionnaires to the participants and answer their questions instantly when participants asked it.

This study is targeted on 60 preschool teacher who work in Johor area. The questionnaire was distributed in two weeks. In this period, researcher will visit different kindergarten in Johor area. Researcher will visit two type of kindergarten which are private kindergarten and public kindergarten. For the demographic data, it will only include general information such as age, gender and working area. Before distribution of questionnaire, preschool teachers will be given a consent letter for prove that their data will be used in this study. After get the permission, research will give the questionnaire to the teachers and give teachers a day to answer the questionnaire. For answering the questionnaire, each participant will be spend on average time 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire with 46 questions on The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) and 10 questions on General Self-Efficacy Scale. After a day researcher only collect the questionnaires from the participants.

3.4.2 Data Analysis

For the data analysis, researcher will use IBM SPSS Statistics 22 to analyse the collected data from participants. Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic information from participants in a study, their characterises, and how they did on a test or results (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). In this study, there are descriptive statistics which are preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence level and self-efficacy.

Inferential statistics is the statistics that represent the population that the area we conducted the study (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012). In this study, researcher will discuss about the differences self-efficacy between private preschool teachers and public preschool teachers.

The study will conduct Pearson Correlation and Independent-Samples T-Test to test hypothesis and analysis the data that had collected. Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (r) is designed for interval level variables (Pallant, 2013). In this study, Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) will be able to test the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher. Researcher uses Pearson Correlation Coefficient to analyse the data is because both questionnaire are scale data. According to Pearson Correlation Coefficient, both independent variable and dependent variable questionnaire must be scale data. Besides that, according to Cohen (1988), he suggested the strength of the relationship should be: small (r= .10 to .29), medium (r= .30 to .49) and large (r= .50 to 1.0). There will be two types of results which are positive relationship and negative relationship. For the positive relationship, the result will show in positive number. For the negative relationship, the result will show in negative number.

Independent-Samples T-Test is used when researcher want to compare the mean score, on some continuous variable and for two different groups of participants (Pallant, 2013). In this study, Independent- Samples T-Test will be used to compare self-efficacy among private preschool teachers and public preschool teachers. It is because independent variable will be nominal data and dependent variable will be scale data. For assessing differences between the groups, there is a guidelines to follow. If the value in the Sig. (2- tailed) column is equal or less than .05, there is a significant difference on dependent variable for each of the two groups (Pallant, 2013). In the other words, if the value is above .05, there is no significant differences between two groups.

IV FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction

This chapter will discuss the result analysis of this research. The data used to analyse was based on 2 sets of questionnaire which were The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) and Self- Efficacy Scale and it was participated by 60 participants. The data were analysed to identify, describe, and explore the relationship between preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy, and also to examine the differences between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy. In this research, researcher will use IBM SPSS version 22 to analyse the data.

Pearson Correlation and Independent Sample T- test was used to analyse the data that have been collected. Pearson Correlation was used to assess the relationship between preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy. Independent Sample T- test is used to assess the differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers and the differences self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

Pearson correlation is widely used in statistics to measure the degree of linear correlation between variables. It is used to measure the degree of relationship between two variables, where they are associated with each other, rather than affecting another variable. In this study, the Pearson correlation method was applied because it was able to collect data at the earliest stages of the study, and the relevant method was able to identify potential causal relationships that could be used to support hypotheses.

The independent sample T test (or independent t test) compares the average between two non-relevant groups on the same continuous variable, and the difference between the two groups is the average of the two groups. This study uses the T test because it will show whether there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores between the two groups. According to Dahiru (2008), p value less than 0.05 indicates statistically significant. In this study, significant level of 0.05 and two- tailed was used to find out the differences between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers of emotional intelligence and self- efficacy.

4.2 Analysis Results

4.2.1 Demographic Descriptive

The demographic data used to describe the tables and frequencies are used to better understand each component. The relevant information of the questionnaire includes the kindergarten teacher’s workplace.

Number of preschool teachers. In this research, 60 preschool teachers who work in Johor will be selected to do the questionnaire. In this research, researcher have to find 30 public preschool teachers and 30 private preschool teachers to respond the questionnaire. In data collection, researcher had collected 27 public preschool teachers’ respond and 33 private preschool teachers’ respond. The number and percentage is showed in Table 1.

4.2.2 Inferential Statistics Analysis and Hypothesis

H1: There is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy.

The relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy were analysed by using Pearson correlation coefficient, the results was shown in Table 2. The overall score on preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence was M= 2.7560, SD = 0.54822, N= 60, for the preschool teachers’ self- efficacy was M= 2.8517, SD= 0.44853 and N=60. According to the inference results, there is a positive correlation between the two variables, the correlation between the two was statistically significant r= 0.705 n=60. According to Cohen (1988), stated that r= 0.705 show a positive high relationship among two variables where when one increase another will increase too. Therefore, alternative hypothesis is accepted and conclude that there is a statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of preschool teachers.

H2: There is a no significant differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

Independent sample T-test was conducted to compare the self- efficacy among public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers and result was shown in Table 3. In the analysis, it showed that public preschool teachers M= 2.7148 and private preschool teachers M= 2.9636. It is shown that private preschool teachers have litter higher self- efficacy compare to public preschool teachers. Based on the results of inferential statistics shown that there are no significant differences among public preschool teachers (M= 2.7148, SD= 0.36972, N= 27) and private preschool teachers (M=2.9636, SD= 0.48077, N= 33) in the self- efficacy with the values of t (58) = -2.207, p= 0.031. Therefore, null hypothesis is rejected as there is significant difference of self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

H3: There is a significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

Independent sample T-test was conducted to compare the emotional intelligence among public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers and result was shown in Table 5. In the analysis, it showed that public preschool teachers M= 2.4843 and private preschool teachers M= 2.9782. It is shown that private preschool teachers have higher emotional intelligence compare to public preschool teachers. Based on the results of inferential statistics shown that there are a significant differences among public preschool teachers (M= 2.4843, SD= 0.34411, N= 27) and private preschool teachers (M=2.9782, SD= 0.58713, N= 33) in the emotional intelligence with the values of t (53.010) = -4.056, p= 0.00. Thus, alternative hypothesis is accepted and there is a significant difference of emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

4.3 Conclusion

In conclusion, there are three research questions need to answer in this research:

Q1. Is there any significant relationship between preschool teachers’ emotional Intelligence and self-efficacy in Johor?

In the result, there is a significant relationship between preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy in Johor. The result showed that emotional intelligence was M= 2.7560, SD= 0.54822 and self- efficacy was M= 2.8517, SD= 0.44853. Their relationship was 0.705 and it is a very strong relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy.

Q2. Is there any significant differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor?

In the result, there is a significant differences self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor. The result showed that public preschool teachers’ self- efficacy is M= 2.7148 and private preschool teachers’ self- efficacy is M= 2.9636. It have slightly differences between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers. In the result, private preschool teachers have higher self- efficacy than public preschool teachers.

Q3. Is there any significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor?

In the result, there is a significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor as public preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence is M= 2.4843 and private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence is M= 2.9782. Compare both public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence, private preschool teachers have higher emotional intelligence than public preschool teachers.

V DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Introduction

In the research, first research questions is ‘Is there any significant relationship between preschool teachers’ Emotional Intelligence and self-efficacy in Johor?’ with the research objectives ‘To investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy of preschool teacher’. Thus, to accept hypothesis ‘There is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy’ is supported.’

The second research questions is ‘Is there any significant differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor?’ with the research objectives ‘To compare the self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’. Therefore, the result showed to reject null hypothesis and accept alternative hypothesis which ‘There is a significant differences self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’.

Lastly, the third research questions is ‘Is there any significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers in Johor?’ and with the research objectives ‘To compare the emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’. Thus, to accept hypothesis ‘There is a significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’.

In this chapter, we will discuss the overall findings from analysis and implementation. First, explain the overall of finding result. Second, discussion of the research findings with supported from previous research articles. Third, the implication of the research and the impact of the result. Besides that, research also will discuss about limitation in the research and recommendation of future research about this issues.

5.2 Discussion

5.2.1 Hypothesis 1

There is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy.

In prior studies have showed the important of preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy. The results of the present study show a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of preschool teachers when preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence is increase and their self- efficacy is increase too. Preschool teachers’ higher emotional intelligence was linked to higher self- efficacy which can affect how they managing the classroom, children’s behaviour and learning progress. According to Annamaria and Letizia (2008), the relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of Italian high school teachers is significant. They believed that level of self- efficacy of teachers may touched teachers’ inner world. According to Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory, self- efficacy is people believe that their actions can produce the results they expect, and they do not have the motivation or persistence in the face of difficulties (Pajares, 2009). Therefore, self- efficacy is influenced by emotional intelligence. According to Fatima and Majed research (2016), the relationship between emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of physical education teachers have strong relationship connection.

5.2.2 Hypothesis 2

There is a no significant differences self-efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

The results of the present study show there is differences self- efficacy of preschool teachers. This result hasn’t same result with hypothesis. Therefore, researcher rejected null hypothesis. According to Kurt Spencer Ream (2010), the research showed that principals who have positive self- efficacy may perform higher performance. This is because principals/ teachers with positive self- efficacy they believe themselves can do the best in the task. Therefore, positive self- efficacy will perform high performance. In the result, there is a significant differences self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers which private preschool teachers have higher self- efficacy than public preschool teachers. The reason is because private preschool teachers were more competitive compare to public preschool teachers. In private preschool, preschool teachers salary paid were based on their performance. Employers would pay their salary according to their performance. However, public preschool teachers have fixed salary and they will increase their salary every few years. Therefore, salary become private preschool teachers’ motivation and they will increase their self- efficacy. Besides that, in Malaysia, public preschool setting and private preschool setting are different. Therefore, teachers’ sense of self- efficacy will different too (Lily & Mohamed, 2013).

5.2.3 Hypothesis 3

There is a significant differences emotional intelligence between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers.

Besides that, the results of the present study the differences emotional intelligence of preschool teachers show a significant result. The present research has a same result with others research. According to Fatima and Majed research (2016), the result showed that there is a statically significant differences emotional intelligence between public physical education teachers and private education teachers. As their results are same as this research which different type of school may have different emotional intelligence results. In the previous research’s result, it showed that public school teachers’ emotional intelligence higher than private school teachers. However, this research showed that private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence are higher than public preschool teachers. The reason of private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence are higher than public preschool teachers is because most of the public preschool faced not enough teachers to work and it causes public preschool teachers may need to handle more children in class compare to private preschool teachers (Lily & Mohamed, 2013). Therefore, this lead public preschool teachers more stress and influence their emotional intelligence. Thus, private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence are higher than public preschool teachers.

5.3 Implication

There are finite studies in Malaysia that can be used as references in this study. However, there are a lot of foreign studies that can be used as references. Besides that, previous related researches were mostly carried based on primary or secondary teachers. Therefore, there is very limited researches to look into preschool teachers. This study had showed a significant correlation between emotional intelligence (independent variable) and self- efficacy (dependent variable) of preschool teachers. This study identifies the condition of preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence would impact their self- efficacy. Thus, this finding may raise consciousness for preschool teachers to contain their emotional intelligence and self- efficacy as it may affect children’s behaviour that may affect school achievement motivation (Zakrzewski, 2013).

The second findings of this research based on differences between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy, the result showed that there is a significant differences emotional intelligence and self- efficacy between public preschool teachers and private preschool teachers. However, private preschool teachers results shown higher compare to public preschool teachers. In this situation, public preschool may try to increase their preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence so that public preschool teachers would have high emotional intelligence and also high self- efficacy. For example, public preschool can give some training course for their teachers so that they can improve their emotional intelligence.

5.4 Limitation

In this research, we had reached our aims to find out the results. However, there still have some limitations in the study. For this limitations, it can help future research to refer so that they can avoid these limitations.

Firstly, in Malaysia, preschool’s researches still limit In Malaysia, early childhood industry need improvement to catch up people’s attention. Therefore, there is little researches about preschool especially preschool teachers (Wong, Foong & Nair, 2014).

Second, the research is carried in quantitative method, the data collected may not be describe further because responses was digital data based on restricted questionnaires, it is used to assess the way respondents answer. Therefore, open ended questions were not allowed respond by participants because no further information was provided for evaluation by the investigator.

Besides that, convenience sampling was not suitable to use in the research. Using convenience sampling may not accurate and unfair to the research.

Lastly, in this research, only collected 60 sample size. In Johor, 60 sample size was not enough to represent whole preschool teachers in Johor. According to L. R. Gay et al (2012), they suggest that ideal sample size to do a research is 10% to 20% of population.

Therefore, this sample size was too small to conduct the research and it may not accurate.

5.5 Future Research

There is few recommendations that future researcher can look into in further investigating on this topics.

Firstly, qualitative research can be conducted in this research. Qualitative research present the data from words which including open ended questions and researchers able receive different answers and extra information from the participants. Therefore, researchers able to more understand the data that they collected from the respondents. Thus, this will increase the accuracy of the results.

Besides that, in future research, researcher can increase the sample size of collecting the data. By increasing the sample size, it will increase the accuracy of this research. Other than that, this research also can expand to whole Malaysia. Researcher can do a future research about the emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of preschool teachers in Malaysia.

Lastly, in future research is encouraged to use random sampling to conduct the research. For convenience sampling, it is bias because convenience sampling is simply pick the participants who have qualified. However, random sampling need researchers to collect all the population than only pick the participants. Therefore, random sampling is more accurate to collect the data (L. R. Gay et al, 2012).

5.6 Conclusion

This research is a study on emotional intelligence and self- efficacy of preschool teachers. The findings of this study shown that preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence have significant positive relationship towards their self- efficacy where preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence is high, their self- efficacy is high too, it is important as preschool teachers’ emotional intelligence and self- efficacy can impact preschool teachers themselves and children too. Besides that, this study also found that the differences emotional intelligence and self- efficacy between public preschool teacher and private preschool teachers as these two types of preschool teachers’ nature of work are totally different.

In conclusion, preschool teacher is an important role in children’s early childhood life. Children may meet preschool teachers more than their parents because children’s parents have to work in weekday and children will meet teachers at least 8 hours per day. As preschool teacher is a role model of children, teachers should behave themselves and be a good model to children. Therefore, preschool teachers should mediate their emotional intelligence and self- efficacy so that they can bring good behaviour to children.