An Empirical Study on the Social Intelligence of Student Teachers Among the Tribal Community

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
In the current era characterized by social confrontations by the withdrawal of social norms, it is difficult to lead a successful life in a society without social intelligence.Everyone needs intelligence in general and social intelligence in particular to survive.Only high I.Q level is not enough to make a man perfect for the society.According to Thorndike (1920), Social intelligence is the ability to understand others and act wisely in human relations.An aspect of a person's mental capacity that allows for social adaptation is referred to as social intelligence.Social intelligence is crucial for teachers to connect with students in an efficient manner and to comprehend pupils in the classroom, in along with their social environment.The success of the students is significantly impacted by the professional and interpersonal skills of the teachers.Teacher who have strong interpersonal skills, verbal and non-verbal communication skills, empathy, problem solving skills, giving and receiving constructive feedback, reading social cues, understanding humour, active listening, assertiveness, deal effectively with conflict, cooperation and collaboration skills enables meaningful cooperation among students.Educators with high levels of social intelligence are able to mould individuals from different age groups to lead a wholesome life.A detailed analysis of various studies reveals the fact that research in the area of descriptive research in social intelligence has been conducted by many researchers worldwide.However, descriptive research to study the social intelligence of the teacher trainees among the tribal community has been largely unexplored.Especially, such a kind of study has not been taken up so far.The results from this study will, it is anticipated, offer further inputs to higher education institutions regarding the development and implementation of pre-service and in-service teacher training programs in Mizoram.Jeloudar and Yunus (2011) explored social intelligence level among teachers in government secondary schools in Malaysia in light of some demographic variables and to know the correlation between teachers and classroom control strategies social intelligence.Their study results showed that teacher in government secondary schools had moderate level of social intelligence.Their study also showed that with the increase of teacher's age in government secondary schools, their level of social intelligence also increases.Jeloudar et al. (2012) examined the influenced of social intelligence of secondary school teachers from India, Malaysia and China on classroom discipline strategies.The result of the study showed that school teachers from India, Malaysia and China had moderate level of social intelligence.Statistical analysis showed that there was a significant difference in their level of social intelligence among teachers from India, Malaysia and China, a comparison of their mean scores indicated that India had higher level of social intelligence as compared to Malaysia and China; Malaysia had higher level of social intelligence as compared to China.Arthi and Tamilselvi (2016) studied the social intelligence of B. Ed student teachers in Namakkal district.The sample consisted of 724 B.Ed. student teachers from ten Colleges of Namakkal District selected by random sampling technique.The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant difference in the level of social intelligence of B.Ed. student teachers based on gender.There was significant difference in the level of social intelligence of B.Ed. student teachers based on locality.A comparison of their mean scores showed that the mean score of B. Ed student teachers belonging to urban area had higher mean score as compare to B. Ed student teachers belonging to rural area.Anbalgan and Kasirajan (2020) studied the relationship between social intelligence and social media among 300 student teachers from different B. Ed college from Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.The result of their study revealed that 15.7% of student teachers had low level of social intelligence, 69% of student teachers had moderate level of social intelligence and 15.3% of student teachers had high level of social intelligence.The result also showed that there was no significant relationship between the level of social intelligence and competencies of social media of student teachers.

Objectives of the Study
1. To find out the levels of social intelligence of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram.
2. To find out the difference between male and female on the level of social intelligence among student teachers of tribal community in Mizoram.
3. To find out gender difference on the eight dimensions of social intelligence of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram.

Hypotheses
1.There is no significant difference in the level of social intelligence between male and female student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram.
2. There is no significant difference between male and female student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram on the eight dimensions of social intelligence.

METHODOLOGY
The present study is descriptive in nature.Primary data was used to assess social intelligence of student teachers of Mizoram.For the present study, student teachers of the academic year 2020-2022 from Mizoram constituted the population.The sample of the study consisted of 451 (175 male and 276 females) pre-service B. Ed students were selected using stratified random sampling technique.In order to find out the level of Social Intelligence of student teachers of Mizoram, the investigator used Social Intelligence Scale (2013) standardized by N. K. Chadha and Usha Ganesan, published by National Psychological Corporation, Agra 1971.The scores of each individual were interpreted by using the following table (Table 1).Hence, for interpreting for the response, the score of each individual respondent were calculated and interpretation was made as per the z-score norms given in the Social Intelligence Scale.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Objectives No. 1: Level of Social Intelligence of Student Teachers among Tribal Community in Mizoram
To find out the level of social intelligence of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram the investigator made use of Social Intelligence scale developed by N. K. Chadha and Ms. Usha Ganesan.The scores of each individual student teacher were calculated and interpretation was made as per the z-score norms given in the Social Intelligence scale.The research findings of the overall mean, standard deviation and detailed classification into different categories of the student teachers are reflected in Table 2 and Table 3.    4, the mean score and standard deviation of the level of social intelligence of male student teachers were found to be 101.81 and 9.69 respectively.
Similarly, the mean score and standard deviation of the level of social intelligence of female student teachers were found to be 103.41 and 8.57 respectively.Therefore, it may be inferred that male and female student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram had average level of social intelligence.Although male and female student teachers fall on the same levels of social intelligence, a comparison of their mean scores revealed that the mean scores of male student teachers was slightly higher as compared to female student teachers but not statistically significant.
The finding of the present study conducted in Mizoram can be further assimilated with the findings conducted by some studies which showed no significant differences between male and female student teachers in their level of social intelligence (Barbera et al. 2003 (2020) in Turkey found that female pre-service teachers had higher level of social intelligence as compare to male pre-service teachers.Kamil and Bilal (2020) in Turkey found that the level of social intelligence of female pre-service social science teachers were higher as compare to male preservice social science teachers.Detailed gender wise analyses of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram falling on the different categories of social intelligence are shown in Table 5.

Difference in the Levels of Social Intelligence between Male and Female Student Teachers among the Tribal Community in Mizoram
To find out the significant differences between male and female student teachers on their level of social intelligence, a hypothesis was framed and inferential statistic such as t-test was employed.Hypothesis 1 states that 'There is no significant difference in the levels of social intelligence between male and female student teachers of Mizoram.' Hypothesis 1 states that, 'There is no significant difference among the social intelligence of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram with reference to their gender.'As shown in Table 6, the t-value for the significance of difference in the levels of social intelligence between male and female B. Ed students of Mizoram was found to be 1.78.Therefore, the hypothesis which was framed 'There is no significant difference in the levels of social intelligence between male and female student teachers among the tribal community in Mizoram' was accepted.
Considering their mean score, a slight difference was found favouring female student teachers but not statistically significant.

Objective No. 3: Detailed Study of Gender Difference on the Eight Dimensions of Social Intelligence of Student Teachers among Tribal Community in Mizoram
An attempt was made to show the significant difference between male and female student teachers on the eight dimensions of social intelligence scale.The social intelligence scale was divided into five parts; the first part contains 36 questions to evaluate patience (8 questions), co-cooperativeness (11 questions), confidence (8 questions) and sensitivity (9 questions).The second part contains 3 questions to check recognition of social environment.The third part contains 7 questions to evaluate tactfulness.The fourth part contains 8 questions to evaluate sense of humour.The fifth part contains 12 pictures to check memory.The mean scores, standard deviation and t-value were calculated using descriptive statistics (Table 7).
As indicated in Table 7, the t -value for the significant difference between male and female student teachers on their level of patience, co-cooperativeness, confidence and sensitivity was 0.06 which means there was no significant difference between male and female student teachers in their level of patience, co-cooperativeness, confidence and sensitivity.The t-value for the significant difference between male and female student teachers on their level of recognition of social environment was 0.39 which means there was no significant difference between male and female student teachers in their level of recognition of social environment.
The t-value for the significant difference between male and female student teachers in their level of tactfulness was 0.60 which means there was no significant difference between male and female student teachers in their level of tactfulness.The t-value for the significant difference between male and female student teachers in their sense of humour was 3.90 which means there is a significant difference between male and female student teachers in their sense of humour.
A comparison of their mean scores showed that female student teachers had higher mean score as compared to male student teachers which means that female student teachers had higher level of sense of humour.The t-value for the significant difference between male and female student teachers on their level of memory was 1.39 that showed us there is no significant difference between male and female student teachers on their level of memory.Similar study conducted by Arthi and Tamilselvi (2016) in Tamil Nadu found that there were no significant difference between male and female B. Ed student teachers in the social intelligence dimensions of cocooperativeness, confidence, sensitivity, recognition of social environment, tactfulness, sense of humour and memory.The findings of their study also found that there was significant difference between male and female B. Ed student teachers in the patience dimension, female student teachers had higher level of patience as compared to male B. Ed student teachers.Kaur et al. (2021) in Punjab found that there were no significant difference between male and female teacher trainees in their level of patience, confidence, sensitivity and tactfulness.The findings of their study found that there were significant difference between male and female teacher trainees in their cooperativeness, recognition of social environment, sense of humour and memory; male teacher trainees had higher level of memory, sense of humour and recognition of social environment as compared to female teacher trainees.The result of their study also revealed that female teacher trainees showed higher level in the dimension of cooperativeness.

CONCLUSION
The finding of the research study revealed that the student teachers of Mizoram had above average level of social intelligence.The people living of Mizoram were very closely knit society and led a close community life where an individual has an ample of opportunities to develop effective communication skills, interpersonal relationship, sympathy, empathy, cooperation and collaboration, assertiveness and problem solving skills.The present study also revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female student teachers of Mizoram in their social intelligence.There can be many possible reasons, Mizo society where women education have taken a backseat for so long are now given equal opportunity to female to learn and to grow side by side in the institutions; male and female co-operate, work together and mingle responsibly with one another.Both men and women had equitable access to opportunities in community, in social pursuits, and in the workplace.The findings of the present study also revealed that there were no significant difference between male and female in their level of patience, co-cooperativeness, confidence and sensitivity, recognition of social environment, tactfulness and memory.The research study also revealed that there is a significant difference between male and female student teachers in their sense of humour, female student teachers showed higher level in their sense of humour as compared to male student teachers.

Table 1 :
z-Score Norms for Interpretation of the level of Social Intelligence Range

Table 2 :
Overall mean of social intelligence of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram formal education provided and there were no schools in existence during that time.For the purpose of instilling moral ethics based on tlawmngaihna (a term used to express the selfless service to others even at the cost of Am.J. Multidis.Res.Innov.2(5) 70-

Difference Between Male and Female on the Level of Social Intelligence among Student Teachers of Tribal Community in Mizoram
To find out the level of social intelligence between male and female student teachers in Mizoram, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and t-test were used and the detailed study of the results are reflected in Table4.

Table 3 :
Overall level of social intelligence of student teachers in Mizoram Range

Table 4 :
Overall mean of social intelligence of student teachers in Mizoram -gender wise

Table 5 :
Overall levels of social intelligence of student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram -gender wise teachers were having below average level of social intelligence.22 (12.57%)male student teachers were having low level of social intelligence and only 6 (3.43%) male student teachers were having extremely low level of social intelligence.Out of 276 female student teachers, 6 (2.17%) were having extremely high level of social intelligence and 16 (5.79%)student teachers were having high level of social intelligence.Out of 276 female student teachers, one-fourth of female student teachers 70 (25.36%)were having above average level of social intelligence, 113 (40.94%) of female student teachers were having average level of social intelligence, 48 (17.39%) of female student teachers were having below average level of social intelligence and 13 (4.71%) of female student teachers were having low level of social intelligence and 10 (3.62%) of female student teachers were having extremely low level of social intelligence.

Table 6 :
Comparison of the levels of social intelligence between male and female student teachers among tribal community in Mizoram

Table 7 :
Gender difference of student teachers among the tribal community of Mizoram on the eight dimensions of social intelligence scale Dimensions