Linking Social-Emotional Learning to Teaching Practices in an Urban Context: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Abstract

Goe and colleagues’ five-point definition of teacher effectiveness states that effective teachers “…help students learn, as measured by value-added or other test-based growth measures” and “… contribute to positive academic, attitudinal, and social outcomes” (Goe, Bell, & Little, 2008, p. 8). Research has consistently demonstrated the impact teachers have on student learning. Yet, little research has assessed the teachers’ impact on students’ social and emotional skill development (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011), even though these skills are critical for academic success, particularly for students who live in under resourced areas (Romasz, Kantor, & Elias, 2004). The current dissertation seeks to address this gap in the literature through two primary aims: (1) to examine the relationship between teaching practices that relate to social-emotional skills and academic achievement; and (2) to explore how students experience the teaching practices related to their social-emotional skills.

228 students in Grades 4 through 8 participated in a mixed-methods study. Students came from 21 classrooms in two urban schools. They took three surveys throughout the school year, which asked students about their perceptions of classroom climate, SEL skills, and their perceptions of teaching practices. In addition, a sub-sample of students participated in interviews, which asked students more specifically about their classroom interactions. Finally, an observer rated classrooms through the observation protocol: Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Secondary (CLASS-S).

Findings revealed that student perceptions of the three CLASS-S domains differentially related to student outcomes. For example, students’ perceptions of organizational support positively related to behavioral engagement, and students’ perceptions of instructional support positively related to students’ self-awareness of their content understanding. Furthermore, CLASS-S observations related to classroom climate measures and academic achievement but not to their SEL skills, attributable in part to the small between-classroom variability in student SEL skills. Finally, interviews revealed that students thought about classrooms in complex ways, in that their descriptions incorporated many CLASS-S dimensions when describing a single classroom episode. By using a multidimensional definition of teacher effectiveness and using multiple measures to assess teacher effectiveness, results have implications for how teacher effectiveness is defined and assessed, as well as teachers’ professional learning.