Student needs are ever changing within today??s classroom. Training elements for teachers must be adapted so that all students?? individual needs are being met. Training offered by school districts must incorporate specific social and emotional topics that deal with the gifted and talented students?? development. This research project investigated various training options that elementary teachers have received by attending a six-clock-hour workshop when compared to those teachers who received thirty hours of university course work at the university graduate level. The study then determined the specific elements of training received, the topics necessary for implementation that are of a positive nature for students, and finally, qualities that teachers must possess and implement within the classroom in order to effectively meet the needs of social and emotional development for gifted students. This study showed that training in the area of social and emotional development is crafted differently according to the trainer who is presenting the material. The respondents who were interviewed took various knowledge and applied it within the classroom based on student and professional needs. The notion that gifted students are perfect seems to be the norm of thinking in the group of teachers who were used in this case study. The strategies used for classroom implementation are ones that most likely meet the cognitive domain and can be used as a form of assessment for the teacher??s gradebook. The activities that will most likely benefit the emotional quality of a student??s psyche are viewed to be ones that are not beneficial or easily implemented within the constraints of the classroom. The need for social and emotional development is demonstrated by the vast amount of research and models as presented throughout this study. The study shows that much training is needed along with a classroom structure that is designed to help gifted students learn to deal with their intellect as well as with factors that seem to interrupt the intellectual label.

Thesis advisor: Raquel Muniz Castro / Researchers and educators recognize the benefits of developing students’ social and emotional competencies, but there is little research about the impact of leadership practices on the social and emotional competencies of adults in schools. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the relationship between leadership practices (i.e., what leaders think and do) that promote SEL opportunities, and how they shape the work of mental health staff (MHS) — defined in this study as, school counselors, and nurses. Findings indicated that school-based leaders promoted SEL opportunities for MHS when they (1) provided time to meet, (2) provided resources for professional development, (3) provided feedback through dialogue, (4) accessed MHS’ expertise through dialogue, and (5) provided coaching. These leadership practices shaped the work of MHS proactively. These findings suggest that principals should use social awareness to diagnose issues within the school, engage in responsible decision-making to set direction, and promote relationship-building to convince MHS to implement a plan. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Research indicates a significant rise in child and adolescent mental health difficulties over the past few decades (Mental Health Foundation, 2015). Evidence-based programmes are becoming increasingly favoured as a preventative measure to address these difficulties, given that a large number of interventions delivered in schools have been shown to be effective (Domitrovich et al., 2008). While schools offer an ideal stage for the prevention of mental health difficulties, research suggests that the outcomes of evidence-based programmes are heavily moderated by implementation variability (Durlak, 2015). A key driver of effective implementation and therefore, positive outcomes, is the implementer - who in the case of school-based preventative programmes is almost exclusively the class teacher. The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of individual level teacher characteristics on implementation variability in a universal social and emotional learning programme, using data drawn from the evaluation of the PATHS to Success trial (Humphrey et al., under review). A concurrent embedded mixed methods design was used to gain a fuller appreciation of the individual level factors that affect implementation variability. A total of 183 teachers were included in the analyses, who completed surveys regarding their professional and psychological characteristics, as well as their perceptions of and attitudes towards interventions. Data were analysed using multiple regression, including a series of interaction terms. Missing data were addressed by means of multiple imputation. There were twelve focus teachers in the qualitative strand, with interviews conducted to investigate the individual level barriers and facilitators associated with implementation variability. Teachers' interview data was analysed thematically. Results indicated that teachers' characteristics did have an influence on implementation variability, although this varied depending on the aspect of implementation. A series of multiple regression analyses indicated that implementer characteristics accounted for 9% of the variance in the fidelity model, 21% in the dosage model, and 15% in the quality model. No individual predictors were significant, although there were some marginally non-significant trends. There was also no reported increase in the variance across the three models when a series of interaction terms were added. The qualitative interviews aided the clarification of some of the quantitative findings, adding substantial depth to some of the conclusions drawn, with school leadership emerging as a significant factor in the successful implementation of the programme. There were a number of implications as a result of the findings from the current study for researchers, programme developers, and schools in understanding implementation variability at the individual level. Directions for future research are discussed in light of these findings.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-128).

The Leader in Me (Covey, 2008) is an approach to fostering social and emotional learning that has been adopted by more than 3,000 schools across the globe, but which has received relatively little empirical attention. Grounded in the seven habits from Stephen Covey’s (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the school-based program The Leader in Me supports schools in fostering social and emotional learning and empowering students to take on leadership roles in their school. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examines the social and emotional learning of elementary school students attending six public elementary schools that began implementation of The Leader in Me in 2014-15 in comparison to their peers at six structurally and demographically similar comparison schools within the same school districts. The survey and interview data from participating schools are analyzed through the lens of two main conceptual frameworks: social and emotional learning and youth voice. Quantitative results indicate that Leader in Me students demonstrated a significant, negative treatment*time effect for eight of the thirteen measures, and a significant, negative treatment effect for one additional measure, as compared to students attending the matched comparison schools. Three of these measures are related to social and emotional learning, four are related to youth voice, and two are related to overall teacher and school support. Qualitative results reveal that while some students spoke of the 7 habits in ways that demonstrate awareness and application of social and emotional competencies, they also had varying levels of understanding of the habits themselves. Similarly, while some students and teachers spoke of the ways that The Leader in Me fosters youth voice and empowerment, other qualitative data suggest that the program is having the opposite effect, and that students are defining youth leadership as compliance. Findings from this study highlight the following recommendations for social emotional and youth voice reform efforts: a clearly communicated implementation framework at the classroom and school level accompanied by an aligned fidelity rubric; the adoption of an action-reflection cycle that includes both teacher and student perspectives; and the awareness of, and active preparation for, inherent power dynamics in schools.

Introduction. A mother’s verbal and non-verbal behaviour towards her infant is known as maternal responsiveness (MR). Positive MR is associated with better child social and emotional development (SED). A mother’s ability to accurately recognise emotions is thought to enhance MR. Method. Data from 1,122 mother-infant interactions from a longitudinal birth cohort study, was used firstly to examine whether positive MR at 12 months was associated with better child and adolescent SED, and secondly to explore whether better maternal facial and vocal expression recognition at 151 months was associated with positive MR and child SED. MR was measured using the Thorpe Interaction Measure (TIM) from observed mother-infant interactions and SED from questionnaire data adjusting for potential confounding variables. A test of facial expression recognition was used with vocal expression recognition additionally used in mothers. Results. Logistic regression revealed that positive MR was associated with positive SED outcomes in childhood but there was little effect in adolescence. Positive MR was associated with mothers having better facial and vocal expression recognition at 151 months and these recognition skills were associated with children showing less emotional problems at 158 months independent of MR. Adjustments for confounding variables had no effect on these results. Conclusion: These findings support the benefit of positive MR on a child’s SED in middle childhood. Further, the findings suggest that a mother’s facial and vocal expression recognition skills are important to both MR and a child’s SED. Limitations include subjective reporting of SED.

A growing body of literature and research emphasizes the importance of developing student mindsets and social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies (metacognitive learning skills) across the prenatal (P) to graduate school (20) (P-20) continuum to increase student motivation, engagement, achievement, and overall well-being. There is, however, an absence of research investigating the impact of braiding growth mindset, SEL, and mindfulness principles and practices together on early elementary student and teacher outcomes. The purpose of my dissertation is to measure the impact of a new PreK–3rd curriculum called Growing Early Mindsets (GEM™) (Coates, in publication) on student and teacher outcomes across the K–3rd continuum in two districts in Oregon. Data collected during the 2014–15 Mindset Works’ study of Growing Early Mindsets (GEM™) was used. Classrooms were assigned to experimental (implemented GEM™) and control groups and given pretest and posttest measures to measure the impact of GEM™ on students’ approaches to learning, social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies, and literacy skills as well as on teacher mindsets, perceptions, confidence, and motivation. Results were statistically significant for students’ approaches to learning and SEL competencies as measured by Teacher Reports and teacher’s beliefs as measured by the Teacher Mindset Survey. Results were not statistically significant for students’ approaches to learning and SEL competencies as measured by Student Surveys, nor students’ oral reading fluency as measured by district-administered oral reading fluency measures. All experimental teachers reported that GEM™ changed their perceptions of their own and others’ learning and growth, increased their confidence to integrate growth mindset and SEL practices, and increased their motivation to improve their overall teaching practices. While the results are somewhat promising, the findings raise many questions that need further exploration. / 10000-01-01

This thesis reports on a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the SEL policy makers’ conversations taking place in England and Wales during the New Labour period. The research sets out to offer a critical explanation of Welsh and English SEL policy thinking and doing and how the SEL policy discourse worked to privilege certain ideas and topics and speakers and exclude others. Thinking with theory and building on the work of Apple (2007) and Ball (2012) I draw on the contemporary tenets of critical theory to examine the (dominant) English and (often subjugated) Welsh discourse(s) to historically locate and contextualise the mainstream SEL literature within the ideological discourse of neoliberalism (Harvey, 2005). This neoliberalism is one which unequivocally drives policy in the direction of markets and propounds a thorough marketization of educational provisions and practices (Lynch, 2006).Drawing on data from a series of eight semi structured interviews with key national level policymakers, alongside documentary analysis, I argue that New Labour in England, particularly in its second term, through a particular policy network and the SEAL programme, adopted SEL as a tool of managerialism designed to shape and govern a self-managing, entrepreneurial, placid subject in the service of the neoliberal economic model. Alternatively I contend that the Welsh assembly adopted SEL as a practical and progressive tool for developing a more equal society and a more egalitarian and democratic modus operandi of social justice (rooted in normative precepts of the collective and of community cohesion). This “Welsh” approach was powerfully intertwined with the devolution programme and notions of the child as a democratic citizen with agency and rights. In both England and Wales this understanding and application of SEL was intimately connected with national identity and notions of nationhood. This work was undertaken using a CDA approach. It employed Fairclough’s Three Dimensional Model (1992) of Critical Discourse Analysis and engaged with the subject and data through the three lenses of text (the written and spoken word), discursive practice (the production, distribution and consumption of the text) and social practice (the wider social, political and economic forces shaping the discourse). By illuminating through CDA the ideologically infused discursive claims to truth and value, which underpinned the rhetoric and substance of the UK (Anglo-centric) Government’s version of SEL in schools and that of the devolved Welsh Government, my findings reveal the broader scale ideas and political-ontological truth claims which drove the development of SEL across England and Wales during the New Labour period; the research therein unveils the implicit but reified notions of childhood and children’s wellbeing which were central to SEL development at both the national and devolved levels; it identifies the unspoken and latent ideological projects which were core to the production of divergent SEL discourses in each of the countries; and finally, it reveals the influence which national tradition, domestic power structures, cross-societal inequities and the subjugation of certain identities have had on the conceptualisation and practical delivery of SEL in England and Wales. The study concludes that the relationship between language and political ideology in England and Wales during the New Labour years powerfully shaped the SEL policy discourse. In England the result of this was a thin version of SEL co-opted into the service of the neoliberal marketplace. In Wales a similar outcome occurred but only after a very different contextualised and transformative version of SEL was relinquished due to the invasive neoliberal forces attacking Welsh education.

Geographies of ageing literature recognises the emotional qualities of ageing. However, an historical tendency to overly medicalise ageing means research often focuses on the emotions associated with specific events such as the emotions involved in living with health-related conditions, being a carer, or being cared for in different settings. There remains a paucity of research that attends to the everyday, mundane emotions of being old. This research attends to this lacuna by drawing on theoretical frames emerging from post-humanism and emotional geographies. Specifically, this research engages with the spatial organisation of emotions as it pertains to an increasingly significant element of ageing: the role of communication technology in older people's ability to create and maintain new modes of (techno)sociability. Drawing upon 29 qualitative interviews and 13 cultural probe follow up responses with retired Londoners aged 59 to 89 years, this research examines how technology connects bodies to objects, people to people and (re)connects older adults to place in new and unexpected ways. Among this participant group diverse, highly individualised and complex amalgams of communication technologies were used. Each mode of communication technology was deployed using intricate strategies of selection and implementation, based on varying temporalities and spatialities, enhancing the ability of participants to relate emotionally with others. Technology use in this regard enabled the portability and emotional continuity of social networks, as communication was no longer tied to certain physical spaces. These findings are theoretically significant as emotions are increasingly seen to have a direct impact on the spatial construction of society through shaping human capacities and behaviours, which form the world around us. Work in this domain has been limited with certain emotions and bodies being more readily researched, and affiliated with particular gendered and sexualised bodies, bodily capacities, physical forms and social identities than others. This research is able to offer an understanding not currently present in geographical literatures, and offer new modes of spatial analysis that take into account the pervasive but differentiated use of technology.

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.