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70: Promoting teachers to enhance their pupils’ social and emotional learning. International intervention study.

By using their social and emotional competence, teachers facilitate their pupils’ experiences of participation, autonomy and agency, which also lead to better academic performance and school engagement. Little internationally reported research, however, exists on teachers’ social and emotional learning despite evidence that teachers make important contributions towards desirable classroom and student outcomes. The present study investigates the development of teachers’ motivation and readiness in SEL by using internationally widely used Lions Quest (LQ) teacher workshops as an intervention in ten countries. Possible change in teachers’ attitudes, values, knowledge and skills during the LQ will be explored. In addition, the possible differences between the countries will be studied.
Data will be collected in ten countries from 2000 participants. From each country pre- and post-test data will be collected from 100 teachers participating in LQ teacher workshops (intervention group) and 100 teachers not participating in a LQ teacher workshop (comparison group). Using the repeated measures general linear model, we will analyze teachers’ change in their competence in promoting the LQ goals.
Preliminary investigations from Finland indicate that the teachers participating in LQ found goals as more important and relevant after receiving training. Furthermore, after the training, participants from the intervention group felt more competent in skills related to the LQ goals than the comparison groups.

The present study adds to both the theoretical and practical knowledge of the development in teachers’ competence in enhancing their pupils’ positive attitude towards school. This body of research demonstrates that LQ represents a practical tool for schools by assisting teachers in updating knowledge and skills necessary for school engagement and school motivation. The effects of cultural differences in teachers’ development of SEL is discussed.

Author(s):

Markus Talvio    
University of Helsinki
Finland

Minna Berg    
University of Helsinki
Finland

Kirsti Lonka    
University of Helsinki
Finland