Abstract
Early adolescence marks a developmental period during which there is a window of opportunity to explicitly teach and make a significant difference in a young person’s development of social and emotional competencies (SECs). All students can benefit from the inclusion of SECs and failing to develop such SECs can result in poor outcomes in several domains including personal, social, and academic outcomes. Research on social and emotional programs for young adolescent learners has shown that a ‘skills and drills’ approach is far less effective than focusing on mind-sets and classroom climate. Although the role teachers play in explicitly teaching and supporting young adolescents’ SECs has been recognised, teachers have reported a lack of confidence in knowing what, and how to teach these skills. This paper reports on a teacher education course that embedded social and emotional skills into both coursework design and assessment expectations. Results drawn from an analysis of students’ responses to their main assessment task showed that pre-service teachers had a growing awareness of SECs and, in particular, were able to recognise the importance of focusing on the building of students’ SECs to support academic success across a broad range of curriculum areas.
Highlights
As young people enter early adolescence, their main goals are to become independent and socially skilled [1]
The results of the analysis of the data will be explained by each key learning areas (KLAs) and outline (a) the number of assessments where it was evident that social and emotional competencies were to being overtly part of their research focus, and (b) the key competencies that were described within those assignments
The pre-service teacher education students (PSTEs) were able to select any issue of concern that related to their future classroom practice and, at first glance, from the rationales used within the analysis, there appeared to be a limited number of social and emotional competencies included within the assignments
Summary
As young people enter early adolescence, their main goals are to become independent and socially skilled [1] During this time, they experience significant physical, cognitive and social and emotional changes while learning how to manage changing relationships with their parents and more complex relationships with their peers [2]. They experience significant physical, cognitive and social and emotional changes while learning how to manage changing relationships with their parents and more complex relationships with their peers [2] It is a time when young people are transitioning to a secondary school setting with increased academic demands and an expectation that they are take on more personal responsibility. Changes in brain structure and this increased hormone activity can make even minor social difficulties like being rejected by peers can be very hurtful and difficult to deal with
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