The Development of Teachers' and Their Students' Social and Emotional Learning During the "Learning to Be Project"-Training Course in Five European Countries.

Minna Berg,Irena Raudiene,Baiba Martinsone,Daiva Šukyte,Lauri Hietajärvi,Isabel Benítez,Francisco Cuadrado,Matej Košir,Kirsti Lonka,Marco Ferreira,Markus Talvio,Veronica Ornaghi,Valeria Cavioni,Elisabetta Conte,Sanela Talić

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.705336

Abstract

In recent years, the school curricula in many European countries have introduced social and emotional learning (SEL). This calls for the teachers to have SEL competencies. The present study evaluates teachers' and their students' readiness for SEL during an intervention in five European countries. The participants were teachers (n = 402) in five European countries; Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain. The pre- and post-measuring points for both the intervention and the comparison group were at approximately the same time before and after the intervention. Comparison data consisted of 159 teachers in the same countries. The training for the intervention group lasted 16 h for the teachers and a maximum of 16 h for the principles and headmasters. An additional 9 h of further monitoring took place. There were two student groups participating in the study: the age group of 8–11 years (pre puberty) and the age group of 12–15-years (adolescents). Students, whose teachers had participated in the intervention, formed the intervention group (n = 2,552). Those students, whose teachers did not participate in the intervention, formed the comparison group (n = 1,730). The questionnaire data were collected at the beginning and at the end of the school year for both age groups. The results indicated that there was a favorable development in the intervention group in some of the measured skills among students, but the effects were different for the two age groups. This study adds to both theoretical and practical development of continuing teacher training about SEL and its possible role in reducing problem behavior among the students.

Highlights

In recent years educational policies decision makers worldwide have shown growing interest toward students’ well-being as a facilitator of improved learning (Cohen, 2006; Durlak et al, 2011; Ashdown and Bernard, 2012; Zeidner et al, 2012; Taylor et al, 2017)
For the scope of this study, we only focus on the questions about Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies and problem behavior, because they were the target of the interventions
When examining the intervention group and comparison group separately it was found that the change was significant in the intervention group [F(1, 2299) = 7.58, p = 0.006, partial η2 = 0.003] but not in the comparison group [F(1, 2299) = 1.702, p = 0.192, partial η2 = 0.001]

Summary

Introduction

In recent years educational policies decision makers worldwide have shown growing interest toward students’ well-being as a facilitator of improved learning (Cohen, 2006; Durlak et al, 2011; Ashdown and Bernard, 2012; Zeidner et al, 2012; Taylor et al, 2017). In addition to teachers’ willingness and the manner with which teaching the SEL skills is transferred into practice, there may be other factors influencing the quality of the implementation in the school level. Domitrovich et al (2008) used a multi-level conceptual framework for describing the levels on which implementation quality may be enhanced They point out that the school level includes components such as the school climate and culture, the resources available as well as the expertise of the staff. This includes the teachers’ possibilities for acquiring peer support for delivering SEL and sharing experiences of success and possible challenges in doing so. According to Humphrey, support provided by school leadership is a crucial factor for both the sustainability as well as the adaptation of skills in the classroom surroundings

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion