Teachers’ Views of Social-Emotional Skills and Their Perspectives on Social-Emotional Learning Programs

Abstract

This research aimed to understand primary teachers’ views of primary teachers’ social-emotional learning and social-emotional learning programs in Turkey. Findings revealed that although most of the teachers had heard of the concept of social-emotional learning, they could not give a detailed explanation of it. Additionally, most of them were not aware of the Emotional and Social Development program implemented since 2012 in Turkey. The findings imply that teachers should be informed about social-emotional learning and that efforts should be made to implement the Emotional and Social Development program effectively. Through this research, primary teachers' views of social-emotional learning were identified for the first time in Turkey. Hence, findings will help researchers, teacher trainers and teachers, as well as policy makers, to develop students' social-emotional learning skills and acknowledge the social-emotional learning programs.

Keywords: Social-emotional learning, social-emotional skills, primary teacher