Teachers' self-reflections after implementation of Social emotional learning (SEL) program

What is it about?

The main idea of the paper was to reveal a content of teachers' written self-reflections after implementation of SEL program in Latvia. The goal of the analysis was to examine how teachers reflect upon their own strengths and weaknesses in implementing the program. Participants were 630 classroom teachers. Thematic analysis led to five thematic categories. The majority of the teachers’ reflections were focused upon their pupils’ performance or their own professional competencies. Only a relatively small percentage of the teachers actually reflected upon their own social and emotional skills in relation to successful implementation of the program.

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Why is it important?

The implementation of a SEL program is influenced by the teacher's own social and emotional competence. Socially and emotionally competent teachers have high levels of self-awareness and social awareness. Results of the current research revealed that only 15% of the teachers recognized the role of their own personal competencies when implementing the social emotional learning program. The results of this study imply the necessity for future teacher education programs to include the training of self-observation and self-reflection, and to encourage an increasing awareness of the impact of one's personal competencies on the teaching process itself, especially for teachers who are implementing social emotional learning programs.

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