Emotion-focused teaching practices and preschool children's social and learning behaviors.

Abstract

Preschool classrooms are rich with emotions, from a teacher's enthusiastic praise for a child's work to a child's anger at another child who is using wanted materials. A wide variety of teaching behaviors may help children learn about their own and others' emotional states as well as regulation strategies to manage their emotions. In the present study, we relate teachers' emotion-focused teaching behaviors (including how teachers model emotions, instruct about emotions, and respond to children's emotions) using a new observational tool, the EMOtion TEaching Rating Scale (EMOTERS). In addition, social and learning behaviors with teachers, peers, and tasks were observed for 77 children in 18 classrooms. We used the EMOTERS to predict children's social and learning behaviors within time (fall, spring) and over time (from fall to spring). Results affirm that emotion-focused teaching practices (modeling, responding, instructing) vary across classrooms. We also found instances of these practices being related-within time and over time-to children's social interactions with teachers and peers, and engagement in tasks. Most significant associations were found with emotion instructing, despite its relatively infrequent use in classrooms. Findings offer valuable initial evidence about EMOTERS as a tool for measuring emotion-focused teaching behaviors and potentially as a tool for supporting professional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).