Click here to download the Handbook on Writing Academic Papers for Postgraduate Students at UTAB prepared by Prof. Vicente Sinining.

NOTE: This paper is a final group project of the students in their PGDE 607 module, as part of their academic writing training. Edited and revised by Professor Sinining for publication purposes.

INTRODUCTION

Students' social and emotional (SEL) development plays a critical role in their overall well-being and academic success. This paper explores the impact of social and emotional learning programs on students' development and academic outcomes.

Social and emotional developments are important to growth in early childhood. These social and emotional skills are associated with the ability to communicate with others in the classroom (e.g., teachers and peers) and outside of school. Social and emotional skills influence how children interact with others, how they deal with their emotions, and how they react to the events that happen around them. In addition, these social and emotional skills are correlated with the ability to properly express emotions such as happiness, sadness, nervousness, and anger; these skills also help children determine how to act when they feeling one of these emotions. In addition, children can learn about their feelings and identities by practicing social and emotional skills with their peers and teachers. For most children, their positive or negative educational experiences affect their development. These experiences affect children's academic development, behavior, and social and emotional competence.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social emotional Learning(SEL) is the process in which children and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop and manage emotions and achieve goals, feel and express empathy for others, create and maintain caring relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions (Barnes, 2019).

SELis the kind of skills involved in achieving goals, working with others, and managing emotions. Another commonly used term is life skills. They are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO, 1997). Students are entering school buildings without the social-emotional skills that are essential to be successful in a classroom environment (Ashdown & Bernard, 2011). Many educators are saying students need direct instruction on these essential skills for students to be able to access learning (Lawson et al., 2018).

The impact that social and emotional competence has on children's academic achievement and behavioral skills

Teacher-Child Relationships: Preschool and kindergarten teachers must have specific characteristics, such as honesty, patience, flexibility, fairness, and respect for all young children. Lippard et al. (2018) declared that positive teacher-child relationships support children's social, emotional, and cognitive development, academic achievement, and classroom behavior but Negative teacher-child relationships and negative communication between peers affect children's emotional, and social behavior skills and cause them to dislike interacting with their peers in the classroom (Breeman et al., 2015).

Communication with Peers: Peer Relationships must be positive.In the class, communication between peers is just as important as communication with teachers. Thus, learning-based collaboration and communication can help children to develop SE skills. Breeman et al. (2015)

Importance of the Teacher-Child Relationship: Healthy teacher-child relationships in early childhood help to create healthy adolescents. Many researchers have found that the teacher-child relationship affects many aspects of children's development. For example, the teacher-child relationship supports the growth of social and emotional skills, as well as academic achievement and healthy behavior. Lippard et al. (2018) mentioned that the teacher-child relationship affects children's academic success. He also declared that positive teacher-child relationships support children's social, emotional, and cognitive development.

Ways to build healthy teacher-child relationships

There are many ways to build healthy teacher-child relationships. Various strategies and activities can encourage children to interact with their teachers and peers: Welcoming each child to class in the morning with a smile, using a calm voice, listening to children when they talk and asking them to listen to their peers, asking distressed children about what is hurtful them, encouraging them to welcome each new day, using eye contact when talking to them, sitting at the children's level to provide good interactions, using simple words when talking with them, addressing them by their names, engaging in small-group activities and asking them to participate in collaborative play.

How Social and Emotional Development Affects Young Children's Behavior?

Few children find it very difficult to accommodate new friendships, and few exhibit undesirable classroom behaviors (Anliak &Sahin, 2010). These children require support to overcome their difficulties before they grow older when such behaviors become more challenging.

StrategiestoFosterPositiveSocialSkills -Art-Based Approaches:

Children should be encouraged to use art (whether copying, drawing, painting, or sculpting) to interact. Such activities help children to develop new ways of working and interacting (Laroche, 2015). The preschool setting provides young children with many opportunities to interact with their peers and to develop positive behavioral skills (Cohen & Mendez, 2009).

The I Can Problem Solve Intervention: These interventions exist for training children in social and problem-solving skills. These interventions are meant to decrease negative behaviors aggressively and increase academic achievement. (Anliak & Sahin, 2010).

Parent-Teacher Relationships: The parent-teacher relationship supports the regulation of children's achievement and behavior before the start of formal schooling. Researchers have shown that children whose parents and teachers both reports very good cooperation have better academic and social skills, as well as less extreme behavioral problems.

Peer Relationships: Their peer-play behavior was moderately stable from fall through spring. At the start of the study, we found that emotional difficulties were consistently associated with maladaptive behaviors and declining social competence.

CONCLUSION

Placing SEL as a priority in school districts and providing sufficient training and support for educators impacts students' academic outcomes, student engagement in learning, and future successes. SE skills are related to communication skills and the ability to form connections with people, both inside and outside of school. Children need to learn various skills by interacting with their teachers and peers to develop their SE competence. children with strong SE skills can recognize and handle their behaviors in positive ways. The developed SE skills will lead to better school outcomes, adaption of future learning, well-being, and ability to manage good behaviors.

REFERENCES

Cléfai, C.,et al. (2018).Strengthening Social and Emotional Education as a core curricular area across the EU. A review of the international evidence, NESET II report.Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Mona, A.,et al. (2013).The effect of social-emotional competence on children academic achievement and behavioral development. University of South Florida, USA.

Pitlik, Kristina (2021). Social-Emotional-Learning and the Impact on Student Achievement. Northwestern College: Iowa.

https://www.nu.edu/blog/social-emotional-learning-sel-why-it-matters-for-educators
Note to students: You should follow the standard format of referencing from online sources. See guidelines below on the link provided.

IMPORTANT GUIDELINES TO STUDENTS

• Students must follow the standard format of APA Style References
• APA style uses two main parts for citations: in-text citations and the reference list.
• In-text citations briefly acknowledge the source you're using within your writing. They include the author's last name and the year of publication, enclosed in parentheses (Author, Year). For example:
• A study found that exercise improves memory (Smith, 2023).
• If you're directly quoting something, you'll also include the page number after the year (Author, Year, p. #). Here's an example:
• "Regular physical activity is essential for maintaining cognitive health," (Smith, 2023, p. 12).
• The reference list, at the end of your paper, provides complete details about the sources you cited. The format for the reference list varies depending on the source type (book, journal article, website, etc.). Here are some general guidelines:
• Start the reference list on a new page.
• List references alphabetically by the author's last name.
• Double-space the entire reference list.
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of each reference.
• For specific formatting instructions on different source types, you can refer to Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) APA Style Guide

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