Investigating the Relationship between Multiple Intelligences and professional Identity of Iranian EFL Teachers

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers`` Professional Identity and their types of Multiple Intelligences. Moreover, it aimed to see the extent to which their multiple intelligences can predict their professional identity. The participants of the study were 137 Iranian EFL teachers teaching in language schools of Semnan province. Professional identity questionnaire and multiple intelligence survey were used to collect the data. The results of correlation analysis indicated that there is a relationship between language teachers`` professional identity and their type of multiple intelligences, the highest one belonging to kinesthetic intelligence representing a large effect size. The results of linear regression showed that teachers`` multiple intelligence type can predict their professional identity. After, excluding the linguistics intelligence which did not contribute to the regression model significantly, the remaining seven multiple intelligences predicted 63.7 percent of professional identity. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further studies are presented.