Trait Emotional Intelligence and Multiple Intelligences as Predictors of Academic Success in Serbian and Greek IT Students

Abstract

Even though research on predicting the academic achievement of IT students is not scarce, the inclusion of trait emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences as predictive factors is somewhat novel. The research examined associations between identified profiles of trait emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences, and academic success in the sample of 288 IT students, 208 from Serbia and 80 from Greece. The results show that trait emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences profile both proved to be important predictors of academic success. Another predictor of IT students’ academic success was related to their prior schooling success. The results indicate that fostering a student-centered learning model through tertiary education, with special emphasis on students’ personal dispositions and traits, could be crucial for their academic success, especially in the multidisciplinary field of information technology.