The role of teachers' commitment to implement in delivering evidence-based social-emotional learning programs

Health Promoting School Program From Affordable Health Initiative: Implementation Process in Brazilian Schools

BACKGROUND

This study evaluated stakeholders' perceptions regarding the initial implementation process of the health promoting school model proposed by the affordable health initiative (AHI HPS model) in schools of Belo Horizonte/BRA.

METHODS

The model has been implemented since 2019, by an implementation committee (IC) with members from university, health, and education sectors. Data were collected from records of the IC meetings (n = 10) and interviews with 5 IC members to evaluate the model's acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, and feasibility. The material was decomposed by content analysis.

RESULTS

Two categories and 7 subcategories emerged, suggesting that stakeholders found the model straightforward and well-suited to schools. Facilitators (teamwork, motivation, commitment, teacher's central role, inclusive decision-making, intersectoral responsibility pact, model alignment with school context) and barriers (family involvement, time constraints for curriculum integration, financial resource, school infrastructure, records difficulties, university unawareness of the school context) to implementation were presented.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY

The results highlight the need to involve civil society and decision-makers to make the program feasible.

CONCLUSION

Participants showed they accept and intend to contribute to implementing the model. They believe in the program's feasibility as long as teacher involvement is prioritized, and identified barriers are overcome.

Teachers' stress and training in a school-based mindfulness program: Implementation results from a cluster randomized controlled trial

School-based mindfulness trainings (SBMT) are a contemporary approach for intervening to promote students' social and emotional skills and well-being. Despite evidence from the larger field of evidence-based social and emotional learning programs demonstrating the importance of high-quality implementation, few studies have investigated factors impacting the implementation of SBMTs, particularly teacher-level influences. The present study addressed this issue by investigating whether teachers' stress, trust in their fellow teachers and principal, and expectations about the program at baseline predicted the quality of their implementation of a SBMT for students. In addition, we examined whether teachers' stress at baseline moderated the effect of training condition on implementation quality. Implementation quality was assessed via observations and teacher self-reports. Results from a sample of British secondary (middle-high) school educators (N = 81) indicated that teachers who felt more supported by their principals at baseline were later observed to implement the SBMT with greater quality, whereas teachers who had more positive expectations about the program felt more confident teaching the course in the future. Teachers' baseline stress moderated the effect of training condition on all measures of implementation quality; among teachers experiencing high stress at baseline, more intensive training led to higher quality implementation. Implications for practitioners and prevention researchers are discussed.

Students' 2018 PISA reading self-concept: Identifying predictors and examining model generalizability for emergent bilinguals

Decades of research have indicated that reading self-concept is an important predictor of reading achievement. During this period, the population of emergent bilinguals has continued to increase within United States' schools. However, the existing literature has tended to examine native English speakers' and emergent bilinguals' reading self-concept in the aggregate, thereby potentially obfuscating the unique pathways through which reading self-concept predicts reading achievement. Furthermore, due to the overreliance of native English speakers in samples relating to theory development, researchers attempting to examine predictors of reading achievement may a priori select variables that are more aligned with native English speakers' experiences. To address this issue, we adopted Elastic Net, which is a theoretically agnostic methodology and machine learning approach to variable selection to identify the proximal and distal predictors of reading self-concept for the entire population; in our study, participants from the United States who participated in PISA 2018 served as the baseline group to determine significant predictors of reading self-concept with the intent of identifying potential new directions for future researchers. Based on Elastic Net analysis, 20 variables at the student level, three variables at the teacher level, and 12 variables at the school level were identified as the most salient predictors of reading self-concept. We then utilized a multilevel modeling approach to test model generalizability of the identified predictors of reading self-concept for emergent bilinguals and native English speakers. We disaggregated and compared findings for both emergent bilinguals and native English speakers. Our results indicate that although some predictors were important for both groups (e.g., perceived information and communications technologies competence), other predictors were not (e.g., competitiveness). Suggestions for future directions and implications of the present study are examined.

Play is a play, is a play, is a play… or is it? Challenges in designing, implementing and evaluating play-based interventions

When a social-emotional learning (SEL) intervention is implemented in an early childhood classroom, it often involves play. Some interventions even list play as its main component. However, the advocates of play arguing for the return of play in early childhood education (ECE) classrooms still have difficulty convincing the proponents of more rigorous academic instruction. These proponents cite research pointing to the insufficient evidence of the positive effect of play on children’s short- and longer-term social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes as well as their overall well-being. We believe that there are multiple issues with play-based interventions’ design, implementation, and evaluation that might account for this insufficient evidence. In our paper, we discuss the numerous ways play does (or does not) feature in SEL interventions and how it might affect the outcomes of these interventions. We also examine the methodological challenges of having child-controlled play as a component of an SEL intervention. While we are not proposing a specific protocol for re-evaluation of the results of existing interventions, we outline some ways such re-evaluation can be possible in the future, along with the development and evaluation of new play-based SEL interventions.

Beyond All Splits: Envisioning the Next Generation of Science on Mindfulness and Compassion in Schools for Students

Objectives

This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; summarizes findings of experimental research on the impacts of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) on student outcomes in prekindergarten, primary, and secondary school settings (ages 4-18 years); discusses scientific limitations and wider critiques of this work; and offers suggestions for future research.

Methods

Public data are used to describe the emergence of science on SBMPs, the foci of this research, and the academic disciplines contributing to it. A narrative summary of scientific findings regarding the impacts of SBMPs on students, and critiques of this work, is also presented.

Results

Research is increasing and is primarily psychological and prevention-oriented. Evidence shows SBMPs can enhance students' self-regulation abilities, but SBMPs' impacts on other student outcomes at different ages are equivocal. The current research has significant limitations, and these, alongside wider critiques of the work, suggest important directions for research.

Conclusions

In the next generation of science, we suggest (a) improving the experimental research; (b) expanding developmental research; and (c) re-envisioning assumptions, theories, and methods in research to go "beyond all splits" towards a non-dualistic and relationally, culturally, contextually, ethically, and developmentally grounded science on mindfulness and compassion for students in schools.

Promoting psychological well-being in preschool children: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness- and yoga-based socio-emotional learning intervention

BACKGROUND

Mental health issues in youths have cascading negative effects on school outcomes, professional life, and physical health. Psychological well-being (P-WB) is an important protective factor against mental illness. Preliminary research suggests that mindfulness- and yoga-based socio-emotional learning (SEL) interventions can each have a positive impact on preschoolers P-WB. The objective of this trial is to rigorously evaluate the effect of a 24-week combined mindfulness- and yoga- based SEL intervention in preschool children from a French socio-economically disadvantaged area.

METHODS

The P-WB promotion intervention is compared to a wait-list control condition in a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT). Sixty-four pre-Kindergarten classrooms are randomized to the intervention or control group. Primary outcomes measure self-management capacity and core P-WB components: connection, insight, engagement, and positive relationship. Secondary outcomes include measures of mental health, executive functioning, and school performance. Primary and secondary outcomes are assessed through teacher questionnaires, standardized observations of children in school context, and experimental tasks and by collecting results of the national evaluation at first grade. All children-level outcomes are evaluated at pre-intervention, at the end of the intervention, and 1 year later (follow-up analysis), to the exception of school performance which is evaluated at follow-up only. Intention-to-treat analyses, accounting for clustering within classes, will adopt a random effects linear regression model to examine outcomes for the intervention versus control children.

DISCUSSION

This is the first trial to rigorously evaluate a combined mindfulness- and yoga-based P-WB promotion intervention, and the first RCT evaluating a SEL curriculum in French schools. Results may have key implications for P-WB promotion in preschool children.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

https://www.drks.de/ DRKS00028623. Retrospectively registered on 30 May 2022.

Social Responsibility and Spiritual Intelligence: University Students' Attitudes during COVID-19

Human behavior during COVID-19 has led to the study of attitude and preferences among the population in different circumstances. In this sense, studying human behavior can contribute to creating policies for integral education, which should consider the convergence between social responsibility and spiritual intelligence. This can lead to the sensitization of practices and attitude modification within society. The purpose of our research was to explore the spiritual intelligence attitudes of university students from the perspective of social responsibility, considering the sociodemographic characteristics of the research subjects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research design is quantitative and sectional, due to the use of two quantitative scales. The participants were university students from a city located in south-central Chile. A total of 415 participations were collected, of which 362 applications were valid. Statistically significant differences were found according to gender and age. Women and the student cohort between 18 and 24 years of age placed more importance on spiritual necessities. We thus highlight the necessity to have adequate spaces for spiritual intelligence training given its links with socially responsible behavior and, finally, the development of explanatory studies to determine its causalities. In practice, these results contribute to designing an educational policy on the formation of integral spiritual intelligence for future professionals.