The relationship between the emotional and spiritual intelligence levels of teacher candidates and their comprehension and academic achievement

Intelligence is a concept that always takes importance in societies from past to present. In this study, it was found out that emotional and spiritual intelligence characteristics of teacher candidates differed statistically according to various variables. Another aim of the study was to determine the relationship between the emotional and spiritual intelligence characteristics of the prospective teachers and their reading comprehension and academic achievement. 197 teacher candidates from the Turkish Teaching Department participated in the study. The data gathered to the study were collected in the 2018-2019 academic year. The "Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale" was used to determine the emotional intelligence traits of the teacher candidates. "The Spiritual Intelligence Characteristics Scale" and "Reading Comprehension Self-Efficacy Perception Scale" were used to determine the spiritual intelligence characteristics. The data were analyzed by SPSS 20 package program. For the statistical analysis of data, Independent t-test, Single-factor ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis were used. As a result of the study, it was determined that the emotional and spiritual intelligence characteristics of the teacher candidates did not differ according to the gender characteristics, grade levels and the educational status of the parents. Emotional and spiritual intelligence characteristics of teacher candidates include; It was determined that there was no significant relationship between the emotional and spiritual intelligence properties and the habit of reading books. It was determined that there was a significant positive correlation between the emotional and spiritual intelligence characteristics of the trainees and the academic achievement. It was found that there was a negative correlation between emotional and spiritual intelligence characteristics and reading comprehension. The results of the study were compared with the related studies in the literature and some suggestions were made. Keywords: Academic Achievement, Emotional Intelligence, Reading Comprehension, Spiritual Intelligence