ABSTRACT

It is well established that EI is very important in our lives. However, at the preschools under the supervision of the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Malaysia, EI is not given exclusive attention and the curriculum provided by the MOE only considers EI as a pillar along with other pillars that are important such as language, mathematics, etc. (Standards of National Preschool Curriculum, 2009). Therefore, in an initial study, it was found that majority of preschool children (in southern part of west

1 INTRODUCTION

Many studies have found significant relationships between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and future success in education (Fantuzzo, Bulotsky, McDermott, McWayne, Frye & Perlman, 2007; Izard, 2004; Raver & Knitzer, 2002). Children who are able to apply EI would have better academic achievements (Elias & Weisberg, 2000; Payton, Wardlaw, Graczyk, Bloody, Trompsett & Weissberg, 2000). According to Denham (2006), children who have higher EI are more apt to follow teacher instruction, pay attention, listen and solve problems with patience. Positive emotional skills instilled in children can allow them to develop EI and can shape behaviors which can assist children in learning and eventually to achieve better academic results (Ulutas & Omeroglu, 2007) as children with greater EI are better able to cope and control unexpected circumstance such as frustration, anger, sadness and so on (Mohd Radzi, 2004).