Emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performance of secondary school teachers

The teacher, aside from the challenges he/she faces in everyday work, the rigors of student management and the mountain of paperwork, is also confronted with the task to be emotionally matured, exhibit positive work habits, and display high teaching performance. This study aimed to determine the emotional quotient, work attitude, and teaching performance of secondary school teachers. The study used a descriptive-correlational method of research. Seven hundred and sixty-eight (768) public secondary school teachers from four school division offices in Central Luzon, Philippines took part in the study. To determine the emotional quotient and work attitude of the respondents, the study used tools by Helgriegel, et al. (1992), and the Department of Education’s Competency Based-Performance Appraisal System for Teachers (CB-PAST) for the teaching performance. Analysis of the data is through frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson-r, and chi-square. The results showed that the emotional quotient of the secondary school teacher was “high”. The work attitudes of teachers in terms of sense of efficacy, sense of community, and a sense of professional interest was “very high”. In addition, the respondents also got a “very satisfactory” rating in their teaching performance. The teachers’ emotional quotient and their teaching performance were significantly correlated. The researcher also found significant correlations between teachers’ work attitude in terms of the sense of efficacy and their teaching performance. Further perusal revealed significant differences among the respondents’ work attitudes when grouped according to gender, educational attainment, and length of service. Based on the results, the researcher suggested pertinent implications for the study.


I. Introduction
Education in the Philippines has been arguably inferior to its Southeast Asian neighbors. A UNESCO middecade assessment report of Southeast Asian education systems, published in 2018, for instance, found that participation and achievement rates in basic education within the Philippines had greatly fallen. Educational systems around the world have rapidly experienced changes and reforms, which have impacted teachers' job performance (Mohamad & Jais, 2016).
Teachers' work attitude can be well-defined by his/her efficiency and effectiveness. However, in terms of emotional intelligence, Ul-Hassan (2016) stressed that job satisfaction is a factor worth considering. Applying principles of emotional intelligence allows solving unanticipated problems (Maxwell, 2010). As a teacher, one must know how to test himself, accept responsibility for his actions and decide what they must do to make a change. Therefore, since teachers' emotional quotient can affect their job satisfaction, then it could benefit the teacher training issues and teacher education (Khoshnoodfar & Pahlavan, 2018).
Teaching, deemed to be the noblest of all professions, requires innovations in techniques to make the approach individualized and more learner-centered (Robinson, 2009). Every learning day, teachers need to teach for six (6) hours and allot two (2) hours for other teaching-related activities (e.g. preparation of lesson plans, work plans, instructional materials, assessment tools, research, etc.), as prescribed in the Department of Education's memorandum (No, 291, s. 2008). Therefore, it is important to acquire skills and strategies relevant to every learner and learning area. One motivation for gaining the appropriate competency level is the positive effect it brings not only on the performance of a teacher but also on his/her well-being (Wahyudi, 2018).
With these activities in mind, stress is a major draw-back of the profession. Lopez and Extremera (2017) pointed out that there is a negative association between emotional intelligence and tension dimensions. This idea came out through a systematic review of current evidences on emotional intelligence and exhaustion of teaching professionals. In addition, although technology has created help to the work of a teacher (computerization of grades, unlimited resources of activities, games on the net, social networking, etc.), it still boils down to a teacher's motivation to do so. Sipila (2010) confirms this, as she reveals that teachers who used personal laptops in their work regarded the use of ICTs as a positive factor than those who did not, but the inclination of the teacher to use them is the greater factor than that.
In today's world, diverse learners require differentiated instructions. Friedman and Friedman (2011) stated that education must be interesting and relevant for students, while the teacher raises the standards in the process. For them to produce wide range of teaching strategies, a teacher must deal with transformation-upgrading or updating professional and personal development. Naqvi, et al., (2016) argued that emotional intelligence has a strong relationship with performance. Teachers are professionals, and pre-service trainings and workshops had equipped them with the necessary skills to teach. Yet, with the advancement of science and technology, there is a great need for them to acquire competence in the use of modern equipment to enhance their teaching skills. As such, the government's endeavors for achieving creativity should include increasing flexibility in the national curriculum, developing teachers' creativity by improving teacher education, and establishing support systems such as online information websites and teaching and learning materials (So et al., 2017).
Moreover, Chizhik and Chizhik (2018) suggest that teacher education programs must improve in developing teachers' skills of aligning lesson plan features and using assessment data as tools to mediate their thinking about students' learning needs. Principals, head teachers and coordinators, therefore acting as situation managers, must observe teachers in schools to provide them feedback on how they could improve their teaching performances.
Another factor worth considering is the effect of family environment on teachers' performance, which is another facet of the emotional capabilities in the profession (Lonto, et al., 2018). To further prove the essence of emotional quotient to teacher's efficacy, Shafiq and Rana (2016) concluded that teachers' environment at home reflects a reasonable power of predictability toward the organizational commitment of teachers.
The Philippines, in response to the call for reforms in its educational system, has implemented its biggest leap in reform-the K to 12 Basic Education Program. The development aimed at preparing not only the learners but also the teachers in a global perspective of the educational arena. Teachers are trained to be practical, technical and dynamic in teaching the lesson through its contextualized content, while learners are actively engaged and share responsibilities for developing life-long learning.
Public school teachers, who are the primary catalysts of this education reform, are supposed to be the creams of the crop, because (1) they passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers [LET]; (2) they qualified in the Division Ranking for Elementary and Secondary School Teachers; (3) some, if not most of them, have taken up Graduate Studies; and (4) they have more expereinces in teaching. However, these qualifications are all washed away once the public school teacher becomes tasked with handling uncommon problems which affect his/her emotional quotient and attitude. As Navas and Vijayakumar (2018) put it, employees with high emotional intelligence and job satisfaction produce the best performances in the workplace.
This study aims to study the relationship of Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Work Attitude of teachers with their performances. The research is limited to the public secondary school teachers in the school divisions in Central Luzon, Philippines. This research paper aims to aid in quantifying and qualifying the results and equating those results to psychological and behavioral facts. The study also considered the inherent factors of the respondents to determine their effects to teacher's performance.

Research design
This study utilized the descriptive-correlational method of research, which sought to identify the emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performance of public secondary and their inter-relationship among the school teachers of the four Schools Divisions in Central Luzon, Philippines. The researcher gathered information and data through survey questionnaire. The data gathered was tabulated and subjected to statistical treatment for proper analysis and interpretations.

Participants
The subject of the study was 768 selected secondary school teachers from the four Schools Divisions in Central Luzon, Philippines. The study used a convenience sampling technique to gather the necessary number of participants.

Instrument
The study used a survey form patterned from Helgriegel, et al. (1992) for the teachers, and the DepEd CB-PAST for the administration. For validation purposes, the researcher administered the questionnaire to the teachers of public secondary schools in Central Luzon, Philippines, together with the Performance Ratings of teachers from the past two (2) consecutive years. Individuals who are experts in the field of educational research were encouraged to check the research questionnaire as to its validity. The university president, dean of the Graduate Studies, the researcher's adviser, colleagues and principals were consulted as regards the questionnaire's legitimacy before implementing the said instrument.

Data analysis
After the survey, tabulation and treating of data commenced. The data gathered were treated with frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation to determine the actual sample size population of the respondents. Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to identify the relationship between Teachers' Emotional Quotient and Work Attitude and their Teaching Performance. Chi-Square was used to determine the differences among the respondents' emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performance. The study made use of SPSS 22 in treating the data. Table 1 presents the demographic profile of respondents. As seen, there are more respondents that belonged to the bracket of 29-37 years old. Majority of the respondents were female and there are more of them who are already married. In terms of educational attainment, there is more bachelor's degree holders and are still young in the service (1-7 years). Lastly, majority are ranked Teacher I in their profession.  Table 2 presents the emotional quotient of public secondary school teachers. We can note it from the table that item statement 3 registered the highest weighted mean of 4.40 which is verbally interpreted as -very true of me‖. Meanwhile, item statement 6 got the lowest weighted mean of 3.89 which is verbally described as -true of me‖. The overall mean was computed at 4.11 which is verbally interpreted as -true of me‖ and has a transmuted rating of -high EQ‖.   Table 3 to Table 5 exhibit the secondary school teachers' level of work attitude in terms of sense of efficacy, sense of community and sense of professional interest. Table 3 manifests the level of work attitude of public secondary school teachers in terms of sense of efficacy.

On sense of efficacy
Teacher respondents -strongly agree‖ on all the items showed. Item 4 got the highest weighted mean of 4.46 while item 6 got the lowest weighted mean of 4.26. The overall mean was computed at 4.33 which is verbally described as -strongly agree‖.  Table 4 shows the level of work attitude of secondary school teacher respondents in term of sense of professional interest. All of the items indicated in the table got an overall mean of 4.28 which garnered a verbal description of -strongly agree‖. The highest mean from the table belongs to item 1 with 4.45 with a verbal interpretation of -strongly agree'. But the item with the lowest mean belonged to item 4 with 4.08 with an equivalent verbal interpretation of -agree‖.  Table 5 shows the level of work attitude of secondary school teacher respondents in term of sense of professional interest. All items stated in the table including the overall mean of 4.39 garnered a verbal description of -strongly agree‖. Item 4 got the highest overall mean of 4.51 with a verbal interpretation of -strongly agree‖. While the lowest weighted mean was from item 1 with 4.29 with the same verbal description of -strongly agree‖.  Table 6 exhibits the teaching performance, which is measured by their ratings in the CB-PAST. We can see from the table that majority of the secondary school teacher respondents got a -very satisfactory rating‖. Meanwhile, 3.77 percent registered a -satisfactory‖ rating and the remaining 4.82 percent got the highest level of rating, -outstanding‖.  Table 7 presents the results of the analysis on the correlations between teachers' emotional quotient and their teaching performance. Likewise, the results of the analysis on the correlations between teachers' work attitude in terms of sense of efficacy, sense of community and sense of professional interest, and their teaching performance are presented in the same table. Findings showed that significant relationships existed between secondary school teachers' emotional quotient and their teaching performance as manifested by the computed r-value of 0.090 with a probability value of 0.010. This shows a direct correlation between the aforementioned variables. A significant correlation was also found between teachers' work attitude in terms of sense of efficacy and their teaching performance. The computed r-value of 0.101 with a probability value of 0.005 is less than the level of significance of 0.01. A direct correlation between the aforementioned variables is also observed. However, no significant correlations were found between teachers' work attitude in terms of sense of community ( , ) and the sense of professional interest (r-.019, p= 0.603), and their teaching performance as showed by the computed probability values which are greater than the 0.05 significance level.

Relationship between respondents' profile and their emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performance
To determine the differences among the respondents' emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performance when they are grouped according to their profile characteristics, the chi-square was used. (see Table 8 for presentation). Results of the analysis showed that significant differences existed among the respondents' emotional quotient when they are grouped according to age (X 2 =9.002, p= 0.003). Significant finding is also observed in respondents' work attitude when they are grouped according to age (X 2 = 7.951, p= 0.005), gender (X 2 =9.860, p= 0.002) and length of service (X 2 = 6.306, p= 0.012).

Discussion
The study aimed to determine the emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performances of 768 public secondary school teachers in the school divisions from Central Luzon, Philippines. Based on the abovementioned results, it brings interesting findings to light.
For the emotional quotient of the teachers, the study showed that they have high EQ perspectives based on the result of the mean computation. The result runs parallel to the study of Asrar-ul-Haq et al., (2017) where they showed that the emotional quotient of their respondents has a significant impact on the teachers' job performances.
For the level of work attitude of the teachers, the study found a very high result. This outcome is in consonance with the study of  wherein the respondents have a very good professional and personal quality. Relojo et al., (2015) stressed that there was no significant relationship between emotional quotient and work attitude behavior.
For this study, the teaching performance of the 768 secondary public school teachers yielded a result of -very satisfactory.‖ Moreover, the respondents believe that they share desirable values with their respective schools. Based on a study conducted by Yu (2019), there is a moderate positive relationship between the teachers' emotional quotient and management relationship. This could mean that administrators who have higher positions have higher levels of personal and professional characteristics. This further proves that administrators serve as models to their subordinates through maintaining good professional and personal characteristics.
In terms of the relationship between respondents' emotional quotient and work attitude and their teaching performances, significant findings were also observed. This is supported by the findings of the study by Basierto (2008). He stressed that better work attitude of secondary school teachers results to better work performance. However, a study conducted by Consemino (2011) found out that there was no significant relationship between performing school administrators and their work attitude. On the other hand, emotional quotient has positive effect on teacher performance, according to Lonto et al (2018).
For the relationship between respondents' profile and their emotional quotient, work attitude and teaching performance, it obtained significant results between age, sex, length of service, and work attitude. The study confirms that age affects emotional quotient, and educational attainment affects the respondents' teaching performance. The result contradicts the study conducted by Gazan (2006), where she pointed out that regardless of age, the respondents are highly committed to their work as manifested in their performance.
Administrators who have higher educational attainment, according to Hutauruk (2007), are more committed to their work than those who have lower educational attainment. This implies that they learned the value of commitment towards work from their graduate education. However, the finding of this study differs from the findings conducted by Rosero (2003). She stressed that length of service has no significance on the job performance of one person as compared to another. She suggests that job performance of those who have served from 1 to 5 years are just the same as those who have lasted for 20 to 25 years. However, a study by Abalon (2008) revealed that there is a significant relationship between teachers' personal profile and their work performance and between work performance and attitude of teachers,

Limitation and Future Implications
Based on the findings of this study, the emotional quotient of 768 public secondary school teachers in four schools in the Philippines has significant effect on their teaching performance. Furthermore, the work attitude of the respondents in terms of sense of efficacy has substantial effect on their teaching performance. Moreover, the profile of the 768 public secondary school teachers in four schools in the Philippines in terms of age has significant effect on their emotional quotient and work attitude. Their profile in terms of gender affects their work attitude. Educational attainment affects teaching performance, and length of service affects work attitude.
Limitations to be considered in the study is the sample size. The respondents of the study only covered 20% of more than 3,800 secondary teacher population from a province in Central Luzon, Philippines. It is highly recommended to consider other provinces located nearby to generate substantial results. The second consideration is the self-report data which is limited to the respondents' answers which is considered to be highly subjective. This also did not allow the researcher to confirm vital results through triangulation. Thirdly, the study only measured teachers in junior high schools, while the Department Education also covers primary school and senior high school teachers. This is due to time constraints, logistics and financial limitation of the researcher. Moreover, it is highly advisable to contemplate a multidisciplinary approach for the study since there was only one perspective involved. Finally, the work attitude and teaching performance were hard to measure as variables since they comprise different factors and aspects to look upon in coming up with an extensive report.
Considering the findings of this study, implications are drawn: for the school administrators, it is recommended to require teaching experience/s to applicants for teaching positions in the public school and expose teachers to trainings and seminars that would develop and enhance their attitude towards work; for teachers, they need to aspire to attain higher forms of education to refresh professional education skills and discover unique and recent trends to the educational system, promote activities that would maximize efficient communication and harmonious relationship to faculty members, and work on the least prioritized criteria under Sense of Efficacy, Sense of Community and Sense of Professional Interest. This professional behavior enables to strengthen their work attitude towards others and to become positive and productive teachers; and for future researchers, further study is needed for the effective ways on creating an atmosphere of communication and the efficiency and work attitude of teachers hired or serving for 1 to 4 years. A thorough psychological and neurological studies on the emotional quotient is recommended to improve the findings of this research. The affectivity of work attitude based on student achievement still needs to be further studied to support the conclusion.