Η ΕΠΙΔΡΑΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΣΥΝΑΙΣΘΗΜΑΤΙΚΗΣ ΜΑΘΗΣΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΤΙΚΩΝ ΠΡΟΣΧΟΛΙΚΗΣ ΗΛΙΚΙΑΣ ΣΤΙΣ ΣΧΕΣΕΙΣ ΜΕ ΤΟΥΣ ΜΑΘΗΤΕΣ ΤΟΥΣ

Abstract

The quality of the teacher-student relationships influences children’s classroom adaptation, students’ learning, prosocial behavior, and more recently teachers’ well-being. Given the significance of teacher-student relationships, how to most effectively improve the quality and impact of teachers’ daily interactions with students is a key focus of research. A plethora of studies demonstrate that students’ behavioural problems are the strongest predictors of teacher-student relationships. Despite much research interest in students’ SEL, very little research has been completed about teachers’ SEL. Teachers can learn children to relieve stress, manage anger and deal with social interaction, and foster a sense of safety and well-being in children. This assumption however implies that teachers are already socially and emotionally skilled to perceive, use, understand and manage their own emotions and at the same time feel competent in teaching SEL to their students. Based on these assumptions, current study aimed to investigate whether and how teachers’ perceptions of social-emotional learning, competence beliefs and teaching-efficacy, influence teacher-student interactions. Ninety-two preschool teachers completed the following instruments: a) Self-report Emotional Intelligence Scale (STRS), b) Beliefs in SEL Teacher Scale, c) Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) and d) Student-teacher relationships scale (STRS-SF). It was found that teachers’ competence in teaching social and emotional skills to their students as well as teachers’ efficacy in classroom management are associated to their relationships with students. The study underlines the importance of teachers’ perceptions in the effective implementation of Social and Emotional Programmes.