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There is a need for robust evidence about which educational interventions work in preschool to foster children's cognitive and socio-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes. Lab-based individually randomized experiments can develop and refine such interventions, and field-based randomized experiments (e.g., cluster randomized trials) evaluate their effectiveness in real-world daycare center settings. Applying reliable estimates of design parameters in the context of a priori power analyses is essential to ensure that the sample size of these studies is adequate to support strong statistical conclusions regarding the strength of the intervention effect. However, there is little knowledge on relevant design parameters with preschool children. We therefore utilized a systematic collection of individual participant data from four German probability samples (554 [less than or equal to] N [less than or equal to] 2928) with preschool children (aged two to six years) to estimate and meta-analyze design parameters. These parameters are relevant for planning single-level (e.g., in non-clustered lab-based settings), two-level (children nested in daycare centers), and three-level (children nested in groups, with groups nested in daycare centers) randomized intervention studies targeting cognitive and SEL outcomes assessed with three methods (standardized tests, parent ratings, and educator ratings). The design parameters depict between-group and -center differences as well as the proportion of variance in the outcomes explained by different covariate sets (socio-demographic characteristics, baseline measures, and their combination) at the child, group, and center level. In conclusion, this paper provides a rich source of design parameters, recommendations, and illustrations to support a priori power analyses for randomized intervention studies in early childhood education research.

This study investigated the development of study engagement from the end of upper secondary school through the first and second years of higher education. The participants experienced the challenges related to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic while they were either university students or preparing for university entrance exams. The study employed a person-oriented approach to determine what kind of developmental trajectories emerge in study engagement when following the student participants from the end of upper secondary school through the first and second years of higher education. Furthermore, the study investigated whether socio-emotional skills obtained by the end of secondary school and before the pandemic play a role in more adaptive development through demanding restrictions related to the worldwide pandemic and general changes in the learning environment. The 852 participants answered questionnaires on study engagement and socio-emotional skills in spring 2019, and of them, 426 individuals who continued their education answered regarding study engagement again in spring 2020 and winter 2020/2021. The grades in math and Finnish language were also included. The results indicated that most students tended to experience a drop in study engagement during the first wave of COVID-19 compared to the pre-pandemic level; however, they managed to boost their engagement back to previous levels approximately 6 months later. Students who managed to recover their engagement also tended to have higher socio-emotional skills than students who were struggling with study engagement before the pandemic or who started to struggle during the pandemic.

Background: Social-emotional practices are crucial in today's educational landscape, fostering students' emotional intelligence, resilience and interpersonal skills. Integrating these practices into the gamified flipped classroom approach creates an enriched learning environment. However, there exists a notable research gap regarding the specific implementation and empirical evaluation of social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies within the gamified flipped classroom model specifically tailored for higher education settings. Objectives: This study examined the effects of integrating SEL practices into a gamified flipped-classroom approach (GFLA) on students' emotional regulation, learning achievement, communication, and collaboration tendencies. Methods: A mixed-methods quasi-experimental design was employed, involving 36 students enrolled in a study skills course at a university in Vietnam. Participants were assigned to either the SEL-enhanced GFLA (SEL-GFLA) group or the GFLA group. The SEL-GFLA group experienced SEL practices such as meditation breathing, compliment before feedback and optimistic closure. Results and Conclusions: The findings, analysed using independent t-tests, ANCOVA and thematic analysis, revealed that integrating SEL practices into the gamified flipped classroom approach positively influenced students' emotion regulation, learning achievement, communication tendency, learning competence support and emotional appraisal support. These results have implications for educators and policy makers, highlighting the benefits of incorporating SEL practices into instructional approaches to enhance students' socio-emotional and academic outcomes.

Using a sample of 834 male and 765 female Asian students in China (average age = 12.31), this study investigated how active and restrictive digital parental mediation, children's social and emotional competence, and their subjective well-being were associated with cyberbullying penetration and victimization, along with the moderating roles of gender and grade. The results generally supported the unfavorable role of restrictive mediation and the favorable roles of active mediation and subjective well-being. Unexpectedly, children's social and emotional competence was positively related to cyberbullying perpetration and victimization, especially for male students. Multigroup comparisons further revealed that the favorable impacts of active mediation were more pronounced for female and middle school students, while those of subjective well-being were more salient for males.

Culturally responsive student-teacher relationships are critical to the academic success and social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes of students of color and/or students from low-income backgrounds. Yet, little is known about how students' perceptions of their schools' culturally responsive environment are related to the quality of student-teacher relationships. To address this gap, the current study examined how students' perceptions of their school's culturally responsive environment contributes to positive student-teacher developmental relationships, and in turn, their academic motivation and SEL. A total of 2,069 public middle and high school students of color from 46 schools across the country were surveyed (51.4% female; M[subscript age] = 13.4, SD = 1.86; 30.7% Hispanic or Latina/o/x, 30.4% Multiracial or Multiethnic, 17.5% Black or African American, 12.4% Asian or Pacific Islander, 8.7% American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.4% identified as another race or ethnicity). Students' perceptions of their school as a culturally responsive environment were both directly and indirectly associated with greater academic motivation and SEL via stronger student-teacher developmental relationships. Findings have important implications for school administrators' and school psychologists' efforts to create more culturally responsive education environments.

The current climate of K-12 education in the United States has seen a narrowing of literacy instructional practices, exponential amounts of book bans, and contrived hysteria about liberal indoctrination and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Yet, as the world becomes increasingly connected across difference, and as research increasingly demonstrates that we must engage young children from all backgrounds in discussions about sociopolitical issues, it is urgent that classroom teachers foreground children's experiential knowledge in comprehension instruction. In this article, we address the following question: "In three early elementary literacy contexts, how did educators use culturally sustaining practices with diverse children's literature to enact reading comprehension and engage young children in critical, sociopolitical meaning making?" Three teacher educators of Color share findings from qualitative studies in the United States Northeast and Southwest that examine this integration with the use of diverse children's literature. The first finding illustrates how teachers utilized book introductions to situate a diverse group of early elementary-aged students in various sociopolitical issues and engage them in critical readings about texts. The second finding illustrates how a series of after-school literature circle discussions enabled first-grade African American children to make meaning dialogically and communally about enslavement. The third finding illustrates how the teacher created space for second-grade Latinx students to translanguage as they drew on multiple reading comprehension strategies and made sense of immigration. The implications from these studies invite a rethinking of the dominant paradigm of reading comprehension instruction.

Noncore subject teachers often experience marginalization due to perceptions that their work is undervalued. Social and emotional skill-focused continuous professional development can help teachers address the stress associated with marginalization. Purpose: Grounded in the integrative model for teacher change, this study examined the ways in which elementary-level noncore subject teachers' dispositions toward change influenced their experiences with a social and emotional skills development intervention. Method: This study included two iterations of the program with a total of 21 elementary-level noncore subject teachers (e.g., physical education, art, and music) from three districts in the Midwestern United States. Data included a survey, semistructured interviews, document analysis, discussion board posts, observations, and field notes. Collaborative qualitative analysis was used to analyze multiple data sources line by line. Results: Marginalization and low perceived mattering were prevalent among participants. A positive disposition toward change enhanced the influence of the professional learning, and participants found the experience validating. Conclusions: Teachers of marginalized subjects need to feel seen and heard. A positive disposition toward change drew teachers to participate, and the camaraderie formed was a motivator for teachers who felt undervalued.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the student's experiences of social and emotional learning in a community-based youth soccer program grounded in the hybridization of the teaching personal and social responsibility model and the cooperative learning model. Methods: This research was guided by a case study design. Qualitative data were collected over 28 weeks. Twenty-three children (n = 23) participated in the study. Eleven individual interviews, six focus group interviews, two rounds of student drawing activities, and 22 researcher's self-reflection journals were taken during the program. Inductive analysis and constant comparison were used for data analysis. Results: Four themes were drawn from the collected data: "trying your best," "respecting each other" "learning and working as a team," and "making your responsibilities at home and school." Conclusion: The study provided evidence that the hybridization of teaching personal and social responsibility and cooperative learning could be an effective pedagogical approach for students' social and emotional learning development in sports-based youth development programs.

Purpose: The study investigated the social-emotional functioning of children with typical hearing and deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children from diverse cultural backgrounds in Israel through parental reports. Method: A total of 242 parents from both Arabic and Jewish communities participated: 130 were parents of D/HH children and 112 were parents of children with typical hearing. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and a background questionnaire were used. Results: Results revealed increased total difficulties, emotional symptoms, and peer problems as reported by parents of D/HH children. Jewish parents of D/HH children reported greater total difficulties, conduct problems, and peer problems than Arab parents. Significant gender differences were found, with parents of boys reporting higher levels of hyperactivity/inattention and lower prosocial behavior. Among D/HH children, Arab parents reported higher peer problems among hearing aid users compared to cochlear implant users, whereas Jewish parents reported the opposite trend. Conclusion: These findings highlight the significant social-emotional challenges faced by D/HH children, particularly in peer interactions, and underscore the need for tailored interventions that consider cultural differences.

Students are increasingly experiencing social-emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges. Although it is necessary to pinpoint students' academic, social-emotional, and behavioral deficits, it is essential to focus on assessing the student's strengths as a central component in intervention planning to improve student outcomes. A scoping review was conducted to identify rating scales recognized as strengths-based screeners in the literature for K-8 students and examine those scales based on 12 rating scale criteria. Four online databases and standard reference books were used to identify screeners in the literature from 1997 to 2024 that met the eligibility criteria. The RAND Education Assessment Finder was used to identify gray literature. The screeners found in the literature were examined using the 12 rating scale criteria. Research of the literature resulted in 110 sources reviewed. Twenty screeners were identified from the 46 sources screened for evidence, resulting in three scales that best met the criteria for a strengths-based screener: Social--Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales, Devereux Student Strengths Assessment-Mini, and Social Skills Improvement System Social and Emotional Learning Brief Scales. Many screeners are referred to as strengths-based but focus on student deficits. This scoping review synthesizes the literature, discusses gaps in knowledge, and highlights 12 rating scale criteria as one approach to identifying strengths-based brief screening tools. As a vital member of the school-based team, school social workers can assist in selecting strength-based screeners to enhance Tier 2 interventions and student outcomes.

Research Findings: Emotion knowledge is one facet of social and emotional learning (SEL) that emerges in early childhood. Various interventions and measures target preschoolers' emotional skills to bolster these foundational competencies prior to formal schooling. One measure of emotion knowledge specifically with preschool children is the Affect Knowledge Test (AKT). Despite decades of use and adaptations for different modalities and populations of preschoolers, no study has previously examined the psychometric properties of independent items on the AKT. This study utilized Rasch procedures to analyze how items on the AKT function across a sample of 193 preschoolers (mean age = 49.7 months). Analyses revealed that a unidimensional Rasch model fit well to the item data. Age was a significant predictor of affect knowledge, with older children having increased affect knowledge scores. Results support previous findings of a ceiling effect for older children. Practice and Policy: Our study adds to the empirical understanding of the AKT and its use as a tool to measure emotion knowledge in young children. The children's scores on the AKT had adequate reliability, supporting the use of AKT for low stakes research-based purposes.

Forcibly displaced youth (FDY) are young people who have resettled in the United States as refugees, asylees, or asylum seekers. FDY access schools almost immediately upon their arrival, which creates an opportunity to address social-emotional needs while providing instruction in the English language and academic content (Fazel et al., 2016; Tyrer & Fazel, 2014). Despite their resiliency, the growing population of forcibly displaced youth in U.S. schools experience high rates of psychological disorders, can lack a sense of school belonging, and may have difficulty connecting with peers. As such, schools may be the institutions with the most potential to influence FDY outcomes (Kia-Keating & Ellis, 2007). School-based social-emotional interventions have demonstrated positive effects on well-being by reducing negative mental health symptoms and increasing resilience and sense of belonging for FDY (Sullivan & Simonson, 2016). This article examines how school psychologists can support positive psychosocial outcomes for these youth through consultation and intervention within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework.

The mental health of college students in the United States has been a longstanding national concern, which has only been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Journey to Wellness Scale (JWS) is a newly developed instrument grounded in empirical research in prevention, positive psychology, resilience, and social-emotional learning, designed to measure psychological wellbeing in adults, including college students, across 10 dimensions: Adaptability, Initiative, Conscientiousness, Connectedness, Social Competence, Empathy, Optimism, Emotional Self-Regulation, Mindfulness, and Self-Efficacy. The JWS, a 60-item self-report instrument, requires participants to rate their endorsement of the items on a Likert-type scale. The current study explored the adequacy of the JWS in measuring psychological wellness by confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of 722 college students. Results indicated that the JWS reliably captured the 10 dimensions and effectively measured overall psychological wellness. These findings support the JWS as a valid tool for assessing psychological wellness in the college student population. Future research directions and implications of the study were discussed.

This systematic review aims to summarize relevant studies that have evaluated an intervention to prevent bullying and its consequences, in order to highlight main strategies to prevent these episodes. A systematic review of PubMed, ERIC, Education Database, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and FECYT databases was performed until April 20, 2022. From a total of 410 studies initially found, 12 were included in the qualitative synthesis. These 12 studies presented several interventions. Promising interventions included targeting bullying perpetrators, victims, and bystanders simultaneously, as well as building a perceived caring climate and increasing children's resilience. Summary conclusions found that targeting bullying perpetrators, victims, and bystanders simultaneously can prevent disruptive attitudes and bullying by focusing on social and emotional learning and a positive school climate, which can be helpful in providing physical education teachers with a central role in preventing bullying.

Although more is known about how general parenting practices predict social-emotional strengths in children, less research has looked at parent involvement in education and children's social-emotional strengths. This study examined the extent to which parent involvement, specifically home-based involvement, parent-teacher trust, and home-school communication, predicted children's social-emotional strengths in kindergarten. The study featured both parent (n = 120) and teacher ratings (n = 156) of children's social-emotional strengths. We examined the association between parent involvement and social emotional strengths while controlling for child age and gender, socioeconomic status, and general parenting (positive verbal discipline and harsh/inconsistent discipline). Parents' reports of home-based involvement were a moderate to strong positive predictor of their child's social-emotional strengths over the kindergarten year. For teacher ratings of social-emotional strengths, parents' trust of the teacher was associated with higher social-emotional strengths. The findings may inform essential components in parenting or school-based interventions for social-emotional development, as well as differences in what parents and teachers perceive as related to social-emotional development in young children.

Therapy dogs can improve the social and mental health outcomes for children and adolescents. School-based interventions that address social and emotional learning (SEL) can promote children's overall wellbeing and educational outcomes. This study used a qualitative approach to explore children's perceptions of a 12-week therapy dog-assisted SEL intervention in a mainstream primary school in Australia. Open-ended survey questions were completed by 85 Year 5 students and five of these students engaged in a follow-up interview. A thematic analysis identified three main themes: 1) empowerment through emotional learning, 2) positive relationships with peers and family, and 3) personal growth. Empowerment through emotional learning included the subthemes of experiencing, understanding, regulating, and expressing emotions. Positive relationships included the subtheme of communication. Both the SEL components of the program and the integration of a therapy dog appear to have contributed to a perceived positive impact on children's wellbeing overall. This study contributes to the evidence of how therapy dogs can impact school environments and provides a structure for how a therapy dog can support student wellbeing.

Traditionally, giftedness was perceived as a fixed trait, exclusively evaluated through cognitive testing. However, contemporary perspectives view it as a dynamic and socially constructed attribute reflected in many domains. As this paradigm-shift aligns with global movements emphasizing the importance of avoiding labelling students and enhancing the full potential of all students, rather than just a selected few, it puts a spotlight on the social-emotional and character development (SECD) competencies needed to reach one's potential. What we propose is an educational challenge: to establish increasingly inclusive educational contexts that bring out the potential of all students and extend educational techniques to encompass social-emotional and relational capacities essential for inclusive contexts. This paper introduces teaching techniques that foster these competencies through an SECD framework. This approach not only aims to nurture the potential of gifted individuals but also to cultivate their roles as proactive, engaged community members, emphasizing a comprehensive educational paradigm that integrates SECD into everyday inclusive learning environments.

This paper explores the social-emotional challenges faced by bright immigrant youth. We incorporate Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory to identify complexities across the model's 5 layers. In the microsystem, cultural heritage conflicts with assimilation, disrupting support networks, suggesting the need for culturally sensitive support in schools, peer networks, and family involvement. The mesosystem highlights language and cultural barriers in family-school cooperation, recommending enhanced communication, curricular adjustments, and language support. The exosystem reveals immigration policies and discrimination exacerbate challenges, advocating for equitable educational access and cultural competence training. The macrosystem addresses societal perceptions and the recognition of giftedness, promoting equality, diversity, and positive cultural climates. Finally, the chronosystem indicates that policy changes impact developmental trajectories. Understanding these 5 socio-cultural layers and implementing targeted interventions can effectively support the social-emotional well-being and academic success of immigrant youth.

Alaska's alternative high schools use trauma-engaged practices in their education model. Thirteen focus groups with 100 alternative high school educators, staff and administrators were conducted. The study sought to describe the Alaska alternative high school staffs' perspectives on effective practices and impact of alternative education on drug and alcohol use, suicide ideation, feelings of hopelessness, and community support of alternative high school students. Seven overarching themes related to trauma-engaged education and a focus on social-emotional learning were described by educators. The Alaska alternative education model addresses the root causes of youth engagement in health risk factors.

Research Findings: The ability to manage emotions is thought to be important for regulating stress at a physiological level, yet no prior published studies have examined young children's emotion understanding or knowledge in relation to the stress hormone cortisol. The present study investigated the statistical relation between emotion knowledge (EK) and cortisol levels for 307 young children ages 3-5 years who attended Head Start preschool, and their primary caregivers. All of the child participants faced economic hardship and 80% were Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and thereby positioned to experience systemic racism. At the start of the preschool year, EK, or understanding of emotions, was assessed using a well-validated emotion matching task and basal cortisol levels were measured via salivary assay. Results of a multiple linear regression analysis revealed that, after accounting for demographic covariates, greater EK was associated with lower cortisol. Practice or Policy: The finding that EK relates to cortisol levels in early childhood highlights the importance of addressing emotional competence in early intervention programs. Notably, the relationship may be bidirectional and reducing stress levels also may facilitate advancing young children's emotion understanding. Interventions that promote EK and reduce stress levels may advance overall school readiness.

Police presence has increased in schools; however, little is known about the effects of positive police presence on academic or social-emotional outcomes in elementary students, even though their role often includes education and mentorship in addition to law enforcement. Results found that this is a recent area of interest with all articles published in 2019 or later and limited to studies conducted in the United States. Included studies provided limited demographic detail. Related to the specific areas of focus, no studies examined academic outcomes; social-emotional outcomes focused on feelings of safety or student empowerment; there were mixed findings on perceptions of safety; and relationships required intentional work. Over half of the studies included data from across grade levels, making it difficult to isolate findings specific to elementary students. Continued work in this area is necessary to fully understand the positive impact of police presence in elementary schools.

This study investigated the pedagogical strategies implemented by preschool teachers to scaffold social and emotional learning (SEL) in socioeconomically disadvantaged children (ages 3-4) during the 2020-2021 school year amidst COVID-19 in the United States. The participants consisted of eight teachers (representing four teaching teams of one lead teacher and one teacher assistant) from four classrooms in one preschool. The teachers (ages 26-49 years, M = 39 years) had 1-20 years (M = 10 years) of teaching experience. Each teacher was interviewed individually for an average of 40 min virtually via Zoom. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that the four most prevalent strategies applied by the teachers to scaffold the children's SEL were: (1) conducting daily feelings check-ins, (2) modeling social and emotional skills, (3) engaging children in book reading and discussion, and (4) involving children in developmentally appropriate physical activities. These teachers also reported that some children missed out on critical SEL due to their absenteeism.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a topic of growing interest and relevance to music educators, particularly those who teach elementary general music. While there are natural connections between music education and SEL, the incorporation of SEL into a music curriculum must be done with purpose and intent. Many elementary general music teachers struggle with purposefully embedding SEL into their existing curricula, due to factors such as a lack of time, relevance, and inadequate preparation. In this article, elementary general music teachers will discover ways to design lesson objectives and assessments that purposely embed SEL skills with musical outcomes to support the social, emotional, and musical development of all students in their classroom.

Intervention using social stories is a widely used strategy for children with autism spectrum disorder. However, empirical studies on the efficacy of social stories in improving social interaction have yielded mixed results, and such research in China is scarce. This study examined the effectiveness of social stories for increasing social interaction, particularly initiation and response, verbal exchange, body language, eye contact, and combined interaction of a child with autism spectrum disorder. A single-subject experimental study was conducted with two baseline sessions, two intervention phases, and a follow-up period. The results demonstrated immediate and maintained effects after utilising social story intervention. The participant's response behaviours improved more than initiation, and body language as well as eye contact improved more than verbal and combined interaction. Social validity findings revealed positive evaluations of the participant's mother and head teacher. Social story intervention is a promising strategy for improving the social interaction of children with autism spectrum disorder and that should be explored further in future research.

This Teaching and Learning Guide highlights how early childhood teachers can support emotional intelligence and inferential comprehension by drawing children's attention to characters' feelings and by asking students to notice evidence from the illustrations and text. During this read-aloud in Ms. Clark's first grade classroom, we see evidence of the power of picturebooks to teach and support emotional intelligence and inferential comprehension. The purpose of this Teaching and Learning guide is to promote the use of picturebooks to teach social and emotional learning, particularly emotional intelligence thorough the use of inferential comprehension of characters' emotions using text and illustrative evidence.

Many articles have been published in gifted education in recent years. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the evolution of academic studies in gifted education. In this context, the structural topic modeling (STM) method was used to analyze the topics and trends in the field. STM is a machine learning technique that utilizes natural language processing techniques based on text mining. It is a valuable methodology for identifying a text corpus's main topics and trends. The corpus used in this study is 5,127 articles from nine leading journals in giftedness without any year limitations. As a result of the analysis, five topics that prominently emerged in the literature were discovered. These are curriculum and instruction, social-emotional characteristics, thinking skills, identification and assessment tools, and equity and policies. The research topics and trends discovered due to the analysis are discussed within the literature framework, and recommendations are presented.

Noncognitive constructs such as self-efficacy, social awareness, and academic engagement are widely acknowledged as critical components of human capital, but systematic data collection on such skills in school systems is complicated by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges and resource constraints. This study addresses this issue by comparing the predictive validity of two most widely used metrics on noncogntive outcomes--observable academic behaviors (e.g., absenteeism, suspensions) and student self-reported social and emotional learning (SEL) skills--for the likelihood of high school graduation and postsecondary attainment. Our findings suggest that conditional on student demographics and achievement, academic behaviors are several-fold more predictive than SEL skills for all long-run outcomes, and adding SEL skills to a model with academic behaviors improves the model's predictive power minimally. In addition, academic behaviors are particularly strong predictors for low-achieving students' long-run outcomes. Part-day absenteeism (as a result of class skipping) is the largest driver behind the strong predictive power of academic behaviors. Developing more nuanced behavioral measures in existing administrative data systems might be a fruitful strategy for schools whose intended goal centers on predicting students' educational attainment.

Migration continues to emerge as a significant issue in the present day, extending beyond its historical context. This phenomenon not only forms a broad spectrum of impact in social, economic, and cultural realms but also holds notable consequences in the realm of education. Migration, on one hand, has the potential to stimulate cultural interaction, enhancing diversity in knowledge and experience. On the other hand, immigrant individuals may encounter early challenges such as educational inequalities or negative attitudes. This intricate relationship between migration and education contributes to cultural development while simultaneously bringing about areas of societal conflict. Understanding the effects of migration on the younger generation falls within the responsibilities of Psychological Counseling and Guidance (PCG) teachers. These educators aim to support students' academic, personal, social, and emotional development, particularly addressing the challenges posed by the education of immigrant students in the context of social diversity. Research on understanding the attitudes among school stakeholders towards immigrant students contributes valuable insights to this field. In this context, the study is an original work focusing on the perspectives of PCG teachers concerning the attitudes of other stakeholders in schools with immigrant students in private schools. Conducted using qualitative research methods and the phenomenology design, the study involved 12 PCG teachers working in private schools in Gaziantep, Kilis, and Mersin, which are among Turkey's cities experiencing significant migration. Data collected through interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that, overall, teachers and students in private schools with immigrant students tended to have a positive attitude, while parents held a negative outlook. A collective evaluation of all data suggests a notably positive perception and attitude toward immigrant students.

Although there is increased interest in social and emotional competence and mental health in Croatia, there are currently limited measurement options available for early childhood settings. Thus, the SSIS SEL Brief Scales (SSIS SELb), an efficient measure of social and emotional learning competencies developed in the United States, was translated to Croatian and used by 49 early childhood educators to rate a sample of 685 children (average age 4.3 years) from several counties in Croatia. Regarding measurement invariance, the final model cohered substantially with a CASEL-inspired framework. Overall reliability was also high especially for the SEL Composite ([alpha] = 0.94), with notably lower reliability for subscales. Regarding cross-group concurrent validity, concurrent coefficients were largely similar across age and gender, but there were regional differences in validity. Likewise, validity correlations were in line with expectations, with moderate relationships observed between the SSIS SEL Composite and Child and Youth Resilience Measure scores. In sum, the high level of reliability provided a foundation for applied and research usage of the Croatian SSIS SELb, although further validation research will continue to be necessary before widescale implementation. Limitations to the study are discussed and also point to needed additional research before utilizing the Croatian translated SSIS SELb for applied decisions with young children.

Despite growing interest in evaluating the social and emotional learning of students and the development of standardized assessment tools for this purpose, there remains a dearth of validated instruments for evaluating teachers' social and emotional skills. We set out to address this knowledge gap by investigating the psychometric characteristics of the Social-Emotional Competence Teacher Rating Scale (SECTRS) questionnaire, an instrument originally developed and validated in North America. Participants were 572 teachers from Italy (n=324), Latvia (n=139), and Portugal (n=109) ranging from 40 to 59 years of age. We performed confirmatory factor analysis procedures to validate a four-factor model measuring Teacher-student relationships, Emotion regulation, Social awareness, and Interpersonal relationships. The data supported this factorial structure, with a total of 14 items included in the final model. The outcomes of a multi-group comparison indicated that the model exhibited partial invariance, up to and including metric invariance, across the three cultural settings. We discuss these findings in relation to selecting appropriate instruments for assessing the social and emotional skills of teachers in different cultural contexts.

Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are at risk for emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. Social and emotional learning (SEL) may be particularly beneficial to fostering these children's resilience. Given the importance of teacher's role in promoting SEL, the present study aimed to explore special teachers' perceptions of SEL and the practices they use to enhance their pupils' social and emotional skills. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with 15Greek primary and secondary education special teachers and were analysed with the use of reflexive thematic analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the special teachers considered the creation of a supportive school environment a key prerequisite to addressing the pupils' with SEND needs. They perceived SEL as a process aiming to the development of social and emotional skills which contributes to pupils' emotional development and social inclusion. Although they used a number of practices for this purpose, their efforts were often hindered by the lack of collaboration with general education teachers and their limited knowledge on SEL. The findings are discussed with respect to the need to enhance cooperation between the members of the school community and teachers' training on SEL.

The SSIS SEL Brief + Mental Health Scales (SSIS SELb+MHS) are multi-informant assessments developed in the United States to assess the social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies and emotional behavior concerns (EBCs) of school-age youth. Although there are translations of the SEL items of the SSIS SELb+MHS available in other languages, a German translation has never been completed and validated, despite the growing need for SEL and mental health assessment in German-speaking countries. To address this need, this study's primary purpose was the examination of a German translation of the assessment with a specific focus on measurement invariance and concurrent validity invariance testing with 821 3rd through 6th-grade students in Austria and Germany. Results indicated that the SELb+MHS items clustered into 2 SEL factors and 2 EBC factors. With regard to measurement invariance, the SELb+MHS functioned similarly across both Austria and Germany and full scalar invariance was achieved. Additionally, the overall pattern of concurrent validity relationships was as expected and similar across countries. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Social-emotional skills are crucial for preschool children's mental health and later school success. Most school-based SEL programs originate in the United States, reflecting a robust interest in SEL curricula from preschool through secondary school. While EU Member States are increasingly integrating social and emotional skills programs into school curricula, there is a lack of uniform terminologies, frameworks, and assessment criteria, necessitating the introduction of standardized practices. This study aims to offer an overview of US and European preschool SEL programs, utilizing content analysis to showcase the diversity of these programs. The analysis focuses on programs from the "EU-Self Programs for Social and Emotional Skills Development for Early and Preschool Children Applied in European Countries" by Koltcheva et al. (2022), including impact evaluations of nine programs in total. The study analysed the programs in relation to goals and outcomes, and findings reveal that there are no remarkable differences between US and European preschool SEL programs, although certain trends highlight distinctions among programs of different origins. The study will be useful for practitioners who are interested in introducing a preschool SEL program in their institution.

The importance of enhancing social and emotional skills in educational settings has gained prominence, with many countries and organizations embracing the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework to equip individuals with the tools needed for shaping a self-identity, emotional regulation, goal achievement, empathy, nurturing relationships, and responsible decision-making and overall well-being. In this paper, we aim to connect the globally acknowledged Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning SEL framework with international policies that underscore the importance of social and emotional skills in the school context. To accomplish this goal, we first provide a brief overview of the key components of the SEL framework. Subsequently, we explore two significant educational policies within the European context. The first policy is the World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools initiative. We present its objectives, a WHO-affiliated program example, the promoted and assessed competencies of students, and its results, connecting its framework with the CASEL SEL approach. The second focus is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Study on Social and Emotional Skills, describing its developmental process and the assessment framework. Finally, we describe the alignment of SEL with these European educational policies and illustrate their role in advancing and improving the evaluation of SEL initiatives in educational environments.