The relationship between moral intelligence and social skills with the academic performance of Shiraz nomadic high school students

Dissertation for Master's degree (M.A.)

Pedagogical Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between moral intelligence and social skills with students' academic performance. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation research, and its statistical population is made up of Shiraz nomadic high school students who studied in the academic year 92-93. The number is 900 people. The sample size is estimated to be 269 people using Morgan's table, and it is selected by stratified random sampling. From the three questionnaires, Lenik and Keel's moral intelligence in (2005), Matson's social skills (1983) and performance The study of Pham and Taylor (1999) was used and analyzed using descriptive statistics indicators such as frequency, percentage and graph and inferential statistics methods such as correlation, regression, independent samples t and analysis of variance.  The findings of the research showed that there is a significant positive relationship between moral intelligence and social skills with students' academic performance. Also, there is a significant positive relationship between the dimensions of moral intelligence except honesty and academic performance. Also, there is a significant relationship between the dimensions of social skills (appropriate social skills, antisocial behaviors, aggressiveness and impulsive behaviors, superiority, self-confidence, and relationship with peers) with performance. However, the relationship between the two dimensions of antisocial behaviors, aggression and impulsive behaviors with academic performance is significant but negative.

Key words: moral intelligence, social skills, academic performance of students.

Introduction

Man is a social being, and for this reason, he lives in society from the moment of birth to the end of his life and is always interacting with other people. He has realized that being in a group can solve his problems, and for this reason, he always learns how to satisfy his needs in the community. Therefore, the need to teach social skills in a person's life is raised. How and with what quality to be present in the crowd and show appropriate group behavior. The issue of children's social skills is a part of their socialization issue (Soleimani et al., 2008).

Of all the organizations that play a key role in socializing people, the school is the first official place of children's social experience and plays a decisive role in this field. Socialization is a process in which a person's norms, skills, motivations, attitudes and behaviors are formed so that his current or future role in the society is considered appropriate and desirable. In this process, the acquisition and application of social skills and how to communicate and interact with others is one of the main components of social growth, especially among children and adolescents. According to the definition, social skills refer to the learned and accepted behaviors of the society, behaviors that a person can interact with others in a way that leads to positive responses and avoiding negative responses (Abtahi and Nedri, 2013). In order to live successfully in a society, each person needs other skills in addition to individual skills, which are called social skills. Social skill is defined as a set of learned and acceptable behaviors that enable a person to have an effective relationship with others and avoid unreasonable social reactions (Matson and Boisjoli[1], 2008; quoted by Pourmukhtar, 2012).

Lack of social skills causes moral challenges for people. Moral development is the result of interaction between nature and nurture. Morality is formed as a result of the interaction of factors such as parents' opinions, disciplinary methods, as well as children's own choices and authority. The child uses his early experiences to distinguish right from wrong. At the same time, when they need education and upbringing, parents meet their needs in a balanced way, thus they learn to accept rules in life and tolerate frustrations. Extreme loving and fulfilling needs regardless of the child's wants and needs will spoil him. This causes children to become proud based on selfish individualism in the first stages of moral development. This problem is good for two-year-old children, tolerable for six-year-olds, and harmful for 12-year-olds or older children (Mokhtaripour and Siyadat, 2017).

On the other hand, inability in social skills can affect almost all aspects of a student's life, because it reduces his sensitivity to people and his poor understanding of social situations. Disruption of social skills is perhaps the most crippling problem that a student can have. In the literature of psychology and education, the social problem is considered as a separate disability, primary and apart from the problems of education, but failure in learning and academic performance can itself cause secondary social and emotional problems. In general, the social problem can be very effective in academic inefficiency (Lerner[2], 2007; quoted by Shafi Naderi, 2013).

Lots of limitations make the child feel inferior and lack self-control. Therefore, he will become a very rebellious person or very submissive, but in a sick and unhealthy way. With a little reflection, we can see that achieving balance is difficult. By instilling discipline, we are not only punishing wrong behavior or creating restrictions, but we are also teaching how to distinguish right from wrong. Even in spite of the rules and social systems, children at older ages can decide and choose to follow the rules and regulations of the society or not. Finally, in understanding moral development, parents must accept the fact that they must evaluate their children in order to choose better goals for their individual development. Recently, the authors try to introduce a new term called moral intelligence in psychology. Moral intelligence is an almost new topic. Just as emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence are different from each other, moral intelligence is also a completely separate intelligence. The main concept of moral intelligence is that we can distinguish right from wrong; It means to have strong moral beliefs and act based on these beliefs (Borba[3], 2005). From the point of view of practical intelligence, these capacities become values ??and ethics in an educational process (Borba, 2005). Moral intelligence includes the meta-cognitive or meta-practical range that enables the reaction of cognitions, attitudes and moral activities only within the framework of individual value systems. Moral intelligence is able to take responsibility for choices and activities from a moral point of view. A researcher considers moral intelligence to be dependent on seven major values: empathy, conscience, self-control, respect, kindness, tolerance and fairness. The first three principles - empathy, conscience and self-control show the moral core of moral intelligence (Giorgio[4], 2005; quoted by Pourmukhtar, 2012).

One of the important ways to improve the academic performance of students is to help students establish a healthy and suitable relationship with their social environment for emotional, emotional, moral growth and the formation of an independent identity. Evaluation of educational progress and performance is like the concept of quality control in the field of production and industry. In the language of production, this evaluation can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of scientific knowledge and skills in experts, which are considered the final product of the field of education and training, and in this way, the efficiency of science and technology production factories will be strengthened and improved (Lerner, 2007; quoted by Shafi Naderi, 2019).

Therefore, the set of moral intelligence and social skills can have an impact on the academic performance of students. In today's world, academic performance is of particular importance, advanced and developing societies place a lot of emphasis on academic performance, competition and victory, and this emphasis is sometimes more than the importance they place on cooperation or satisfying interpersonal relationships (Bahmani et al., 2013). Therefore, in this research, we intend to examine the relationship between moral intelligence and social skills on academic performance in high school students of nomads in Shiraz. Problem

We live in a complex and difficult world, a special set of skills is needed to succeed and progress in this world and effectively deal with many problems that are facing us. Social skills can be defined as skills necessary to adapt to social needs and maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships. Since social needs are variable and depend on their specific social context, it is necessary for people to create a flexible social response mechanism in themselves, so that they can change themselves according to situational and situational needs (Rashidzadeh et al., 2019).