Potential key factors? Exploring the predictive role and necessity of emotional intelligence and resilience for pre-service teachers’ critical thinking disposition

Abstract

Critical thinking disposition (CTD) is necessary in teacher education, which can assist educators in recognising complex information, making judicious decisions, and effectively responding to the constantly evolving educational environment. This study focused on pre-service teachers and explored factors that may contribute to their CTD. Emotional intelligence (EI) helps individuals grasp emotional cues and promote decision-making, while resilience (RS) provides psychological stability and supports adaptation to challenges. Grounded in a dual-perspective approach integrating predictive and necessity-based analyses, data from 466 pre-service teachers in central and western China were analysed. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) were employed to test the predictive roles of EI and RS and their potential status as necessary conditions for CTD. Results show that CTD is significantly predicted by both EI and RS. Furthermore, NCA confirms that without certain thresholds of EI or RS, high or desired levels of CTD are unlikely to be attained, thereby verifying the status of EI and RS as necessary conditions and their bottleneck roles. This study offers a novel perspective for identifying potential key contributing factors and highlights the importance of integrating EI and RS into the cultivation of CTD in teacher education.