An Investigation of the Relationship between Hidden Curriculum and Student's Emotional Intelligence

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between hidden curriculum, its four components (teacher-student interaction, school rules and regulations, teaching methods, and evaluation methods), and students’ emotional intelligence. The research method was descriptive and correlational and the population of the study comprised senior high school girls in Tehran in academic year 2015-2016. The sample size was determined to be 384 according to Cochran’s formula and random cluster sampling method was utilized. More specifically, Tehran was divided into 5 clusters of north, south, east, west and center. Next, from each cluster one region, from each region, 2 high schools, and from each school, two classes were randomly selected. The instruments included Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (1997) and a self-devised Hidden Curriculum Questionnaire. Ten experts examined the questionnaires and then confirmed their content validity. The questionnaires also had acceptable reliability indices (coefficients higher than 0.70). The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and regression analysis. Results demonstrated that three components of hidden curriculum, i.e., teaching methods, evaluation methods, as well as teacher-student interaction, had a positive, significant relationship with students’ emotional intelligence. No association was observed between school rules and regulations and students’ emotional intelligence.