Malaysian Early Childhood Educators’ Perceptions Regarding Children’s Social–Emotional Development

Abstract

Social-emotional development at an early age is pivotal and it is significantly affecting children's future life. Children with good social-emotional skills will succeed in academic and later life. Nevertheless, to make sure all children mastered social-emotional skills, teachers need to be empowered with the knowledge, teaching approach, teaching strategies and good practices on social-emotional development first. Teachers with good knowledge and practices can support, nurture and foster children's social-emotional development positively. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the Malaysian early childhood educators' perceptions regarding social-emotional development. This study used a survey research design and quantitative approach. A self-developed questionnaire was used for data collection. The questionnaire comprises four variables, which is an overview of social-emotional development, factors associated with social-emotional development, social-emotional learning in the classroom and social-emotional skills. A total of 332 early childhood educators participated in this research were selected using a random sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science to answer the research questions. Findings showed Malaysian early childhood educators have a moderate perception of social-emotional development. Furthermore, the descriptive analysis showed, Malaysian early childhood educators have a good understanding of the overview and skills of social-emotional development variables. However Malaysian early childhood educators demonstrated a poor understanding of the factors associated with social-emotional development and how socialemotional should be taught in the classroom variables. The findings from this study are discussed on teachers' roles and practice to support children's social-emotional development.

Social-Emotional Development of Children in Asia: A Systematic Review

“…In addition, female teachers with higher quali cation and teaching in private schools were reported to be more supportive of SEL than male or female teachers with lower quali cations or those taught at public schools. These ndings were consistent with the Malaysian study that examined teachers' perceptions of SE development in children [40].…”

“…The ndings in this study were consistent with the study in Malaysia, where teachers were aware of the bene t of social-emotional development. However, they lacked the training to implement the intervention in school [40]. The teacher's knowledge of social-emotional development was not examined in this study.…”

“…Lastly, three studies reported a lack of knowledge about children's social-emotional development among teachers in Asia [40,56,70]. There is a need for more studies in Asia to understand teachers' knowledge about social-emotional development.…”

“…School teachers spend most of the time with the children, besides the parents. Thus, teachers at school can identify any problem behaviour early to provide timely interventions for children at risk of poor social-emotional development [40]. However, early identi cation can only take place if teachers are well-equipped with the knowledge of social-emotional development.…”

“…Mohamed et al [40] conducted a cross-sectional study with 332 early childhood educators in Malaysia. This study found that the early educators in Malaysia had a good overview and knowledge on social-emotional development but lacked knowledge of the factors that in uenced the development and how to foster it in the classroom.…”