Creating an Observational Measure of Social-Emotional Teaching in Early Childhood

• In Event: Measuring Social-Emotional Teaching and Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Although there is growing recognition of the importance of children’s social–emotional skills and the corresponding measurement of those skills, the field lacks a rigorous measure of social–emotional teaching (SET). This presentation focuses on describing a new observational measure of SET (the EMOTERS) and presenting qualitative and performance data from early childhood educators who participated in a workshop on SET and evaluated items from the measure.

SET is defined by four constructs: Modeling is the indirect teaching of emotion through teachers’ own expression of emotion. Through modeling, children are able to learn the nature of various emotions, the appropriate time to express them, and how to express them (Denham et al., 2012; Denham, Zoller, & Couchoud, 1994). Teaching is accomplished through direct instruction of emotional information. This may be done through the use of a social–emotional curriculum, but can occur at any point throughout the day. Reacting to children’s expressions is another way teachers convey their beliefs or values of emotions. The teacher may validate the child’s emotional expression by providing labels or comforting or invalidate their expression by minimizing, punishing, or dismissing (Denham et al., 2012). Relating describes the positive and negative elements of children’s relationships with the teacher which provide a foundation for emotional development (Pianta, Steinberg, & Rollins, 1995) and may impact the effectiveness of the other three constructs.

During a half-day workshop, 43 early childhood educators (72% administrators) were presented each SET construct and later sorted EMOTERS items by construct. The number of correct responses – aggregated to the table level – were used to reflect their knowledge of SET. The average correct identification of items was a 72% with modeling (60%) and teaching (63%) being the more difficult constructs. Semi-structured discussions (Table 1) about SET were recorded at eight tables. Transcripts were coded for teaching, modeling, reacting, and relating. A qualitative matrix comparison was carried out, dividing tables by their performance on the item sorting activity (mean split) Tables varied in the proportions of their discussions for each construct (Table 2). For example, out of all of the words said to describe competent teachers’ modeling, 28% were said by the low performing group whereas 72% were said by the high performing group. Each construct had notable comments made by the educators. For example, one high performing participant stated, “I think the other thing teachers can do is they can model for children. So, you know, if something is frustrating, you can say, ‘Wow, I’m really frustrated. This is not going the way I planned it. I’m not going to get angry. Instead, I’m going to try a different way.”

Overall, results suggested that administrators are not particularly good at identifying these constructs, possibly meaning they don't know what competent teachers should be doing to promote emotional competence. The presentation will more fully describe the quantitative analyses and will elucidate findings using quotations from the early childhood educators. Connections to the refinement and implementation of the EMOTERS will also be drawn.

Authors

• Timothy W Curby, George Mason University

• Mayson Trujillo, University of Notre Dame

• Kate M. Zinsser, University of Illinois at Chicago