A pilot evaluation of thePositive Actionprekindergarten lessons

Abstract

There is a definite need for effective intervention programmes that address the social-emotional, character and healthy development of preschool children. Strong social-emotional skills are necessary for successful transitions to formal schooling and for healthy developmental trajectories. The Positive Action (PA) programme has a long history of effectiveness in schools (K-12) and communities, but has only recently developed lessons for preschool settings. The current study reports the results of the first evaluation of these lessons. Children were randomly assigned to classrooms/instructors who had previously decided to offer PA lessons or not. Instructors in both PA and control classrooms rated children's behaviour at pretest and immediate post-test. Results suggest that the PA prekindergarten lessons are effective at improving children's skills and behaviours across all of the domains that the programme addresses.

Social and Emotional Learning Associated With Universal Curriculum-Based Interventions in Early Childhood Education and Care Centers

“…We found variability in study quality. Twelve studies 41,44,54,67,73,76,82,83,87,106,109,111 (16.0%) were rated as high quality; 33 studies 37,40,45,46,47,48,50,56,57,58,59,60,63,64,66,74,78,80,85,86,90,91,92,93,96,97,99,103,104,105,108,110,112 (44.0%), moderate quality; and 30 studies 34,36,38,39,42,43,49,51,52,53,55,61,62,65,68,69,71,72,75,79,84,88,89,94,95,98,100,101,102,107 (40.0%), poor quality. Four non-English studies 35,70,77,81 were...…”

The Emotional Competence Assessment Questionnaire (ECAQ) for Children Aged from 3 to 5 Years: Validity and Reliability Evidence

“…The Student Rating Scale (SRS) [25] is 33-item scale in a 7-point Likert scale (1 = "not at all like this child" to 7 = "very much like this child") assessing 11 different domains related to social-emotional learning and health promotion in children from 3 years of age. The domains are: (1) understanding of positive action, (2) self-concept, (3) physical health, (4) intellectual health, (5) self-management, (6) self-control, (7) respect, (8) considerate, (9) social bonding, (10) honesty and (11) self-improvement.…”

“…The hypotheses of our study are: (a) the ECAQ will show good evidence of validity and reliability; (b) when examining the relationship with other variables, we will find a high correlation between the ECAQ total score and other scales or subscales measuring emotional regulation or social competence (i.e., the Student Rating Scale [25], the Social Competence Scale-Teacher [26] and the subscale the Emotional Regulation Checklist [27]) and a low correlation between the ECAQ and other scales or subscales measuring emotional lability (i.e., the subscale the Lability and Negativity of the Emotional Regulation Checklist) and (c) in the assessment of test dimensionality, we will find a general factor including all five competences.…”

Development and validation of ‘EduSEL’: Educators' Socio-Emotional Learning questionnaire

“…Kindergarten teachers cite skills such as following directions, paying attention, taking turns, and sharing as critical skills for kindergarten readiness (Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016), and research indicates that promoting social and emotional skills in preschool has a strong impact on later education, employment, and health outcomes (Heckman, 2006). Moreover, early childhood is a critical developmental period for building social and emotional skills; research shows that early SEL interventions not only lead to improved behavior and academic performance but may also produce changes in brain structure and function that having a lasting impact on children's future social and emotional development and wellbeing (Blair & Raver, 2014;Schmitt et al, 2014;andEspinet et al, 2013 as cited in McClelland et al, 2017).…”