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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Current research indicates that social and emotional development in the early
elementary years predicts future academic success (Roman, Babchishin, Pagani, & Kohn,
2010). For example, Roman et al. (2010) found negative correlations between
kindergarten children’s impulsivity, and positive correlations between prosocial behavior,
and reading and math skills in the third grade. Furthermore, poor social skills at school
entry are associated with peer rejection and this rejection is predictive of reduced class
participation and poorer school adjustment (Buhs & Ladd, 2001).Thus, lower academic
achievement can be a result of poor socioemotional functioning (Trentacosta & Izard,
2007), poor peer relationships (Buhs & Ladd, 2001), and the child disengaging from the
classroom environment (Schultz, Izard, Ackerman, & Youngstrom, 2001). From such
research, it is clear that improvements in social competence can improve both the child’s
school experience and future academic success. The current project presented selfidentified pre-service early elementary teachers with information about the role social
skills play in academic achievement and teachers’ roles in promoting these skills. Preservice early elementary teachers are students enrolled in teacher credential programs
who hope to teach kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. The hope was that such training might
lead to more effective instruction and better social and academic outcomes for children.
While researchers have demonstrated the link between social competence and
future academic success, many teachers are entering the field unprepared to recognize
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and develop social and emotional skills. When interviewed, the majority of both general
and special education teachers report having little or no training in promoting social
competence in their students (Pavri, 2004). If their teachers are not educated on social
competencies, children who are simply in need of skill sets to improve their interactions
with peers and adults will often be referred to school psychologists and resource
specialists (Doveston & Keenaghan, 2010). Thus, it is necessary to educate teachers on
social competence. This project bridges the gap for pre-service teachers intending to
work in early elementary classrooms by providing information relevant to understanding
social competencies through a handbook and presentation.
This development of children’s essential peer-relationship skill sets is possible
only after a teacher understands the skill sets’ important components. Positive peer
interaction requires a set of social-cognitive competencies which include emotion
understanding, perspective taking, emotion regulation, social problem-solving, and
conflict negotiation skills (Shaffer, 2005). In the context of a training for self-identified
future elementary teachers, this project defined emotion competencies and how they can
be facilitated within the early (K-2) elementary classroom.
In the current project, the resources and training provided to future teachers
included description of several components of social competence. For example, emotion
knowledge allows children to react appropriately in social situations. Research indicates
that a child equipped with emotion knowledge will interact more appropriately with
peers. Garner, Dunsmore, and Southam-Gerrow (2008) found that children’s verbal
abilities around emotion understanding predicted their prosocial behaviors. Educating
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pre-service teachers of a connection between a child’s emotion knowledge and their
prosocial behaviors can help them to facilitate social development with children who may
be experiencing peer rejection.
Similarly, perspective taking allows children to view a situation or feeling from
another person’s perspective. FitzGerald and White (2003) found that children who had
higher levels of perspective taking were ranked as more desirable playmates by peers. If
children can go beyond labeling, understand the right action to take in order to assist
peers in need, and be able to empathize with their peers, the children’s peers respond
more positively. Understanding this dynamic can allow teachers to assess which children
may be lacking in these skills and help them to develop competence in these areas.
In addition to emotion knowledge and perspective taking, emotion regulation is
another important component of social competence in that it allows a child to control
situations that may induce anger or frustration at inappropriate times. For instance, the
transition to elementary school is likely to create many unfamiliar and unpredictable
situations for the young child, which can easily become overwhelming, frustrating, and
possibly anger-inducing. When a child is able to regulate such emotional responses and
remain in control, peer acceptance increases (Trentacosta & Izard, 2007). Improving
teachers’ understanding of this is a proactive and useful preventative in classroom
management as well as helpful to the individual children who need these skills.
Other valuable anticipatory measures in classroom management include the final
two key components of social competence this project would also address: social
problem solving and conflict negotiation. For example, Mayeux and Cillessen (2003)
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asked kindergarten and first grade children how they would respond to different social
vignettes. The researchers found that the children with prosocial answers were more
accepted by peers. These social competencies allow children to effectively navigate
difficulties they may have with peers; research has linked such skills to peer acceptance.
Social and emotional curricula do exist to address these critical social
competencies in early elementary children and much of it has been researched to validate
its use in the elementary classroom. For example, the Making Choices: Social Problem
Solving Skills for Children curriculum has been tested with third graders in a recent
study. This specialized training program combines parent and teacher activities in an
attempt to help children cope with anger, disappointment, and other aggression triggers.
It focuses on teaching children to become aware of emotions with direct instruction on
seeing and interpreting social cues and implementing effective social strategies. Post tests
indicated that children in the test group showed more “social competence and less
aggression” than children in another group (Fraser, Galinsky, Smokowski, Day, Terzian,
Rose, & Guo, 2005).
There are also programs that work to improve overall classroom management as
well as to teach social and emotional skills in an effort to reduce aggression. The
Incredible Years Child Training Curriculum: Dinosaur School is a social and emotional
education curriculum with a classroom-management component, initially created to help
children from the ages of 3-7 years who had severe problems in defiance and had been
clinically referred to the program (Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Stoolmiller, 2008).
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Webster-Stratton et al. (2008) found that the program helped children and improved
classroom environments in both high needs and regularly functioning classrooms.
The Promoting Alternate Thinking Strategies (PATHS) is a curriculum which
aims to improve social and emotional competence through teaching children to stop and
walk themselves through steps of problem solving (The Conduct Problems Prevention
Research Group, 2010), targeting aspects of brain development where connections are
not quite formed with the result that through practicing these steps, children will
strengthen the connections that improve executive function and impulsivity while
simultaneously learning the language that goes along with such experiences. When
studying this curriculum in second- and third-grade children, results showed children
participating in the PATHS curriculum had better inhibitory control, improved fluency,
and less externalizing behavior than children who were not exposed to PATHS (The
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2010).
Despite the availability of research-based social and emotional curricula, such
programs are not likely to be provided by school districts, nor are there opportunities for
training if teachers individually purchase these curricula. Further, these programs do not
necessarily provide important guidance and information about social-emotional
development with children. For example, understanding where children should be in
terms of social developmental milestones is not part of these curricula. A social and
emotional handbook that details social competencies combined with a seminar for preservice early elementary (k-2) teachers offers a more comprehensive approach for teacher
training related to promoting social-emotional development in the classroom.
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The current proposed project targeted self-identified pre-service teachers
intending to teach in early primary grades (k-2). The transition to elementary school is
considered important in setting the stage for future academic success. Children entering
kindergarten come from many different backgrounds socially, emotionally, and
academically (Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000), and they bring varied experiences
with respect to preschool type, quality, and attendance. This can present difficulty for
teachers in early grades. Rimm-Kaufman et al. (2000) found that one-sixth of children
come to school with serious problems adjusting to school and one-third had minor
problems. In a class of 24 students, this equates to four students with serious behaviors
and another eight students with minor behaviors for a total of half the class potentially
acting out at some level. Experienced teachers are likely to have the skills and abilities to
become proactive in teaching social skills to young children after years of experience in
the classroom. However, new teachers are less likely to begin their careers understanding
why children need social instruction or how to effectively improve children’s social
skills.
Thus, the purpose of the current project was to create an evidence-based social
and emotional handbook and training seminar to educate students intending to be early
elementary (k-2) teachers about elements of socioemotional development and its
promotion in their future students. The handbook and seminar focused on understanding
social, behavioral, and emotional competencies and social cognition as well as how these
competencies affect current and future social and academic success. Resources that
further support social competence in the classroom were also included. This handbook
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and accompanying materials were presented to pre-service early elementary teachers who
were asked to evaluate the materials and offer suggestions for improvement.
Definition of Terms
Although there are many terms defined in this project, social competence and
emotional competence are of utmost importance.
Social Competence
Optimal social development in young children allows for social interactions to
occur in a positive and successful way. This competence gives children the social,
cognitive, and emotional skills to react appropriately to social situations. Social
competence was defined by Spence (2003, p. 84) as “the successful management of the
social world (which) requires a sophisticated repertoire of social skills and in
interpersonal problem solving capacity.”
Emotional Competence
Emotional competence is the component of social competence that revolves
around the emotional realm of the child. Emotional competence is formally defined as
“an understanding of one’s own and others’ emotions, the tendency to display emotion in
a situationally and culturally appropriate manner, and the ability to inhibit or modulate
experienced and expressed emotion and emotionally derived behavior as needed to
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achieve goals in a socially acceptable manner” (Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad,
1998). Emotional competence allows children to understand others’ emotions, their own
emotions, and how to respond appropriately in situations where emotions are involved.
Methods
This project aimed to serve pre-service early elementary (k-2) teachers by developing a
handbook on social competence. The handbook and corresponding presentation was
designed particularly for new teachers. The target group of students included 67 upper
division students enrolled in two upper division sections of a required child development
course around social development. This course was selected as students in this course
should be in their final year of the Child Development program and be knowledgeable in
social-emotional development. They are therefore equipped to provide useful feedback
on their perception of the handbook. Most of the students will work with children
professionally and many intend to enter teacher preparation programs when they
graduate. Ultimately this handbook is intended for pre-service teachers in credential
programs.
Development of the Handbook
In order to develop the handbook, the author completed a scholarly review of the
literature on social competence in children. Specifically, literature around social
competencies in young children such as physical and relational aggression, friendship
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skills, conflict resolution, social cooperation, perspective taking, and a multitude of
aspects around emotional development such as regulation, expressivity, and recognition
were reviewed.
Next, a review was made of existing research-based curriculum and training
currently available to elementary school teachers in this domain. This review focused on
school age curriculum as well as pre-school curriculum as applied to school age children
for evidential links. The information found to be of most relevance was compiled into a
handbook for teachers.
Finally, feedback was sought from teacher preparation professors to determine
what information they believed should be included and addressed (see Appendix B). This
information was then presented in a visual and condensed format to a group of preservice early elementary (k-2) teachers via a guest lecture in an upper division Child
Development course. Students in the course were asked evaluate both the presentation
and the handbook for its effectiveness and helpfulness (see Appendix C).
Structure of Handbook
The resulting handbook developed for the current project is divided into four parts:
Social Competence, Social Competence and the Classroom Environment, Friendship and
Peer Acceptance, and Further Resources (see Appendix A). The first section on Social
Competence addresses behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects of social competence
areas. The next section contains ways to implement social competencies in the classroom.
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The following section focuses on friendships and peer acceptance. The final section
contains further resources for teachers.
Limitations
There are several limitations to this handbook. First, there are a large number of
subcategories included in social competence. Because of time and space constraints, the
amount of research on each subcategory of social competence was therefore relatively
minimal. Focusing on one aspect of social competence, or extending the intervention over
several sessions to allow for more in-depth presentation, might have allowed for more
substantial learning on the part of the students.
The limited evaluation of the handbook was also a limitation to this project. The
presentation and handbook were provided to Child Development students in an upper
division Social Development course. Although these students were able to evaluate the
project with knowledge around the topic, the handbook would have benefited from
greater diversity in evaluation. A group of pre-service teachers as well as tenured teachers
would have varied the feedback around the handbook and allowed for more in-depth
feedback on the usefulness of the handbook.
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Organization of the Project
Chapter 1 has served as an introduction and overview for the current project.
Chapter 2 contains the comprehensive literature review including many subtopics of
social competence and current research around the subtopics. This review served to
justify the need for the project and to inform the content of the project. Chapter 3
describes the methodology involved to create this project, including procedures for
project evaluation. The final chapter of this project details the results of the project
evaluation. Additionally, reflection on what could have been done differently is also
found in chapter 4. The final appendices contain the handbook as well as the power point
slides for the project.
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Chapter 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Social and emotional competence is important throughout childhood. In the early
years, it can predict a young child’s successful transition to preschool (Miller, Gouley,
Shields, Dickstein, Seifer, Dodge Magee, & Fox, 2003). Following the preschool years,
social and emotional behaviors in kindergarten are predictive of later academic success
(Romano, Bachishin, Pagani, & Kohen, 2010). Peer acceptance in kindergarten children
is linked to classroom participation and engagement (Buhs & Ladd, 2001). Children
lacking such skills can be referred to school psychologists when they have exhausted the
resources of the classroom environment (Doveston & Keenaghan, 2010). There is,
however, little evidence of supportive curriculum and guidelines that foster this
development in a systematic way among elementary-aged children. The current project is
an attempt to bridge the gap between social and emotional education and the early
elementary years by creating an understanding of this development among elementary
pre-service teachers so they may implement practices to ensure children are developing
social competence.
This chapter reviews social and emotional developmental theory as well as social
competence and how it relates to school success. Next, existing social and emotional
curricula are reviewed as well as research on the transition to kindergarten. Finally, ways
to promote social and emotional competence throughout this transition and effective
teacher trainings research are reviewed. This research was used to develop curriculum for
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teachers around facilitating the development of social competence in early elementary
grades.
Theoretical Frameworks
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory serves as a framework guiding the
current project. This systems theory takes into account the complex factors that
contribute to children’s development, with a focus on adaptation to interconnected
environments (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). This core understanding was later
applied to his theory, most familiarly described through the image of five concentric
circles surrounding the child. His model reflects his natural observations that children are
shaped by environmental factors both directly and indirectly, as well as individual factors
and the time in which they live.
Bronfenbrenner’s model is based on the idea that complex interactions between
Process, Person, Context, and Time (PPCT) will result in the individual development of
the child (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Bronfenbrenner and Morris used the term
“proximal process” to describe interactions that occur between the child and their
environment (2006). This can be between a child and a toy or children interacting
together. Process is usually a repeated scenario, such as dinner with family every night
(Tudge, Mokrova, Hatfield, & Karnik, 2009). Person includes the characteristics unique
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to the individual child (Tudge, Mokrova, Hatfield, & Karnik, 2009). This can be the
child’s gender, motivation, temperament, or any other aspect about the individual.
Context is the setting of the interaction and is made up of the concentric circle
that represents the child’s environment (Tudge, Mokrova, Hatfield, & Karnik, 2009),
often viewed as nested interconnected systems. The microsystem is the context including
the child and anything else, such as a toy, playmate, parent, or childcare center. The
mesosystem included the interactions between microsystems. For example, a meeting
between parents and teacher will connect the two microsystems of home and school. The
exosystem does not contain have the child it in, yet directly impacts the child. A common
example for this system is a parent’s career choice. A professional might have a highly
stressful job and may make a large sum of money, both of which will affect a child
despite the fact that the child is not involved in the work setting. The largest system is the
macrosystem. This system includes cultural and societal practices or ideologies that filter
through the other systems. For example, the obesity epidemic, global warming,
consumerism, religion, and public education are all macrosystem factors. Finally, the
time in which a child experiences processes is of key importance (Tudge, Mokrova,
Hatfield, & Karnik, 2009). For example, students who graduated before No Child Left
Behind will have a different reality around education than those who did not.
The interaction of all these elements must be considered to utilize
Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory within this project. The individual social
competence levels a child brings to the classroom environment will affect how they
adjust to school as well as the peer group. A child interacting with emotion competence is
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likely to elicit warm relations with others while a child who does not read social cues
correctly may not. All the microsystems created amongst a classroom will continually
impact the proximal processes of the students. Further, the teacher in the class can
intentionally direct these processes to positively support social competence development.
Teachers who do not understand what social competencies are will be less likely to
understand how they can alter these processes. Teachers entering the field need to
understand these important concepts to help students develop fully.
In relation to social competence in this time in America, this theory is relevant.
Bronfenbrenner has famously stated that, ”No society can long sustain itself unless its
members have learned the sensitivities, motivations, and skills involved in assisting and
caring for other human beings” (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006, p. 825).
The Teaching Pyramid
The Teaching Pyramid is a model that can help preschool teachers meet children’s
social and emotional needs through class management (Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph,
& Strain, 2003). Although this model is generally used with preschool children or special
education, the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies is in the process of creating a
K-3 model and training course. This pyramid encompasses best practices that can easily
transcend the preschool years. The model consists of a pyramid with four levels: Positive
relationships with children, families and colleagues, Classroom preventative practices,
Social and emotional teaching strategies, and Intensive individualized interventions. At
each level of the pyramid, teachers reflect on practices within their own classrooms and
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work their way up. Each level is designated to an area of potential support the teacher can
implement in the classroom to better assist children in maintaining appropriate behaviors.
Positive relationships are represented at the base of the pyramid. This level of the
pyramid supports the concept that the relationship between the caregiver and the child is
of utmost importance (Hemmeter, Ostrosky, & Fox, 2006). Understanding who the child
is--their personality, likes, dislikes, and who they are in relation to their family--is
important for teachers to know. Further, the relationships between families and the
school, as well as between staff members at the school, are also fundamental building
blocks for a positive learning environment. Through these relationships, the teacher can
work with family members to understand and assist in the child’s development.
Additionally, contact with colleagues and other caregivers can create an environment that
can support the child as the child transitions to new classrooms and settings.
Understanding social competence within the relationships of the classroom environment
can foster teachers to act in ways that are supportive to social competence.
The second level of the Teaching Pyramid focuses on creating supportive
environments (Hemmeter et al., 2006). Environments that are engaging and arranged
appropriately can minimize behavior issues that may arise when children are bored with
monotonous materials. A well-laid-out classroom ensures that children have adequate
space to play without having conflict with peers. Further, and most importantly to social
and emotional development, a supportive environment is one that teaches children the
rules and norms of the classroom. It reinforces acceptable classroom behaviors through
direct instruction of expectations. It also provides predictable schedules and supportive,
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developmentally appropriate transitions. Including this concept into a social competence
handbook can initiate teachers to begin to think analytically about how to further support
social competence throughout the classroom environment.
At the third level of the Teaching Pyramid, children who are still in need of more
support beyond relationship and environment are given social and emotional teaching
strategies to support their needs (Hemmeter et al., 2006). This level promotes classroom
management through teaching children ways to control their impulses and anger as well
as how to solve problems. Teachers can also introduce friendship skills and emotion
understanding tasks through circle-time games and stories as well as though direct
coaching. Optimally, this level is addressed daily in a positive and proactive way so that
children can learn these skills when they are not in a state of agitation. Furthermore,
visual aids and physical props can enhance these skills for children when used in
instruction and then added to the daily environment. For example, for preschoolers,
teaching children calm-down songs using a large pillow can be a circle-time activity and
the pillow can be a permanent part of the class where children are directed to go when in
emotional disarray. Although a calm-down pillow may still be appropriate in a
kindergarten classroom, a first or second grade classroom would need to adapt this tool.
Different school atmospheres may impact the chosen alternative, but teachers should
strive to find a good fit for both their school environment as well as their own comfort
level. For example, one classroom may allow children to sit just outside the door on a
bench for a pre-selected amount of time to be indicated by a child-accessible timer.
Another school environment, such as a locked-door campus, may need to create a small
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seated area in the back of the classroom or teach children to put their heads down on their
desk.
The top of the Teaching Pyramid is the smallest section. It is estimated that only
5% of children will be at this level if all other levels are performing optimally (Sugai,
2007). These are the children who need more individualized support. Within this level,
teachers create individual support programs for children that are not needed or used for
the rest of the class. The program, known as positive behavior support (PBS), is created
with the specific child in mind. These programs directly address specific issues the child
is having. Furthermore, they take into account what is known about the child (such as
what motivates this child) to better assist the child in becoming successful. Optimally,
PBS plans are intended to be used in all environments in which the child is found. This is
considered when creating them so that parents, caregivers, and teachers can unite to fully
support the child in the same way.
The goal in using the pyramid model is that most children will only need minimal
environmental and relationship supports from the lower two levels. These levels assist
teachers in creating supportive classroom environments for all children using social and
emotional best practices, such as warm relationships and direct behavioral instruction,
within their relationships and the environment. The upper two levels offer more
individualized support for the smaller percentage of children in need of additional
assistance to behave in the school environment. Using this model in conjunction with
this project will allow relevant information to be presented in a logical and usable
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sequence to pre-service early elementary educators as it is an effective tool to foster
social and emotional development.
Social Competence
Optimal social development in young children allows for social interactions to
happen in a positive and successful way. Social competence is defined by Spence (2003)
as “the successful management of the social world (which) requires a sophisticated
repertoire of social skills and in interpersonal problem solving capacity” (p. 84). The
term “social skills” is defined by Shaffer as “thoughts, actions, and emotional regulatory
activities that enable children to achieve personal or social goals while maintaining
harmony with their social partners” (2005, p. 426). Mastering this skill set brings about
social competence. Behavioral competence is skill in action, emotional competence is the
regulation of emotion skill, and social cognition is the thought skill. To better understand
social competence, these three components – behavioral, cognitive, and emotional - will
be further discussed, including relations between these skills and peer competence and
academic adjustment.
Peer Relationships and Social Competence
At the heart of social competence lie children’s relationships with their peers and
friends. These friendships and peer relationships are strongly predictive of academic
adjustment. Children who had quality friendships in kindergarten show greater school
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adjustment and higher social competence in first and third grade, while children who
have no friends or low quality friendships in kindergarten show lower school adjustment
(Engle, McElwain &, Lansky, 2011). Ultimately, such poor adjustment to school is
linked to poor academic performance (Rhoades, Warren, Domitrovich, & Greenberg,
2011). Thus, social competence can assist children in developing relationships with peers
and developing relationships with peers can improve social competence, which in turn
leads to better academic adjustment. Similarly, a lack of social competence is also
cyclical in nature, where children are rejected due to lower social competence, which in
turn can lead poorer adjustment and fewer opportunities to engage with others to develop
these skills.
Peer Status. Peer status is defined by Buhs and Ladd as “an attitudinal construct
that reflects the collective valence of group members’ sentiments (i.e., liking, disliking)
toward individuals in the group” (2001, p. 550). Research indicates that peer acceptance
or rejection is strongly linked to both social and academic adjustment (FitzGerald &
White, 2003; Buhs & Ladd, 2001). Children who are accepted by their peers show greater
levels of prosocial behavior as well as lower levels of aggression (FitzGerald & White,
2003).
When children have poor peer status, they may experience peer rejection. Peer
rejection is defined by Buhs and Ladd as “negative peer treatment” (2001, p. 550) and
includes excluding children from activities and group entry as well as victimization. Peer
rejection is predictive of poor social and academic adjustment (Buhs & Ladd, 2001). For
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example, Buhs and Ladd (2001) found that children who experienced peer rejection had
lower academic success. These children also reported being lonely.
Understanding peer status can help in meeting children’s social needs. As
children enter elementary school, peer status becomes more consistent and can be
accurately described by children (Keane & Calkins, 2004). For example, Keane and
Calkins (2004) found negative correlations between children’s assessment of others being
sneaky, bossy, fighting, and wild and their peer status. Further, sharing was positively
correlated with higher peer status. This indicates that peer status is predicted by
children’s behaviors. Enabling teachers to facilitate improved social skills through
educating them to identify which children need improvement as well as how they can
assist in this development could alter the course of many children’s social competences.
Peer rejection may stem from multiple and sometimes complex reasons that may
not be easily identified. However, research has indicated that children who have greater
emotion knowledge at the start of school entry experience less peer rejection in the spring
(Miller, Gouley, Seifer, Zakriski, Eguia, & Vergnani, 2005). Both emotion knowledge
and the corresponding language to label emotions were negatively correlated with
rejection among kindergarten children. Children who are atypical in a multitude of ways
were also found to be rejected by peers (DeRosier & Mercer, 2009). Although many of
the factors children cited for determining peers were irrelevant or unchangeable (such as
clothing or accents), DeRosier and Mercer list several factors helpful in understanding
how to help rejected children; social skill differences, such as disruptive behaviors and
aggression, were among responses given as to why third grade students rejected peers.
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Thus, increasing children’s emotion knowledge and their understanding of appropriate
social interactions and reactions could decrease peer rejection likelihood in young
children.
Friendships. Reciprocal friendships are important social relationships in school
as they are positively linked to school adjustment (Engle et al., 2011; Ladd, 1990). Engle
found that children who had and maintained friendships in kindergarten showed better
school adjustment. Furthermore, longitudinally, the higher quality of friendships children
had in kindergarten correlated with academic success.
Engle et al. (2011) built upon past research but added the dimension of how high
the quality of their relationships with others was and then rated children into four
categories. To determine a child’s rating, parents and teachers provided information on
how many friends the children had and how close these friendships were. Kindergarten
children were categorized as having no friends, low-quality, average-quality, or highquality friendships and then were revisited in the first and third grades. Within the large
longitudinal population, they found correlations between the quality of children’s
friendships and later social skills and behavior problems.
Children who are rejected by peers are often lacking in social skills, so looking to
children that lack friends or quality friendship can be an indication that the child is
lacking in social competence (DeRosier & Mercer, 2009). Although this technique is
broad in scope, it can easily assist teachers in identifying children who may be at risk.
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Behavioral Competence
Behavioral competence is the action component of social competence. It can be
seen when observing children as they interact with others, but there are often behaviors
that are not as obvious. The covert ways in which children attract and maintain friends is
considered a behavioral competence (Fraser et al. 2005). The ways in which children
cooperate with one another or work through conflict are also behavioral competencies.
Children competent in these areas may feel a sense of control and satisfaction in their
social experiences. Conversely, children who are unable to get along with others will
likely feel socially frustrated and may act out more. This can continue the cycle of
rejection and frustration and lead to long-term social problems.
When first through sixth grade school teachers were asked to rate the importance
of a variety of social skills (e.g. self-control, cooperation, etc.) by researchers Meier,
DiPerna, and Oster (2006), self-control was rated as the most important skill.
Furthermore, “controlling temper with peers,” “gets along with people,” and “responds
appropriately when hit” were the top three in a list of specific skills (Meier et al., 2006).
It exemplifies that behavioral self-control, particularly around aggression, is something
that is very important to teachers throughout children’s elementary school years.
Aggression. Aggression is defined as an action with intent to harm or injure
others (Fraser et al., 2005). Aggression has many elements; it can be reactive or
proactive, social or physical, and verbal or non-verbal (Fraser et al., 2005). Aggression
typically peaks at two to three years of age as children are learning to negotiate
themselves and their will in the group setting. Parents and teachers work to prepare
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children for kindergarten and the school years and give children the message that
aggression is not acceptable. Simultaneously, children are gaining skills to get what they
need in other ways through experience. The result is that children of older ages show
declining levels of aggression (Shaffer, 2005).
High levels of overt aggression are linked to peer rejection and friendship
difficulties. Students who rated peers as undesirable in the DeRosier and Mercer (2009)
study cited aggressive behavior as a reason. Children who are rejected by peers due to
aggression do not then alter their behavior in order to gain peer acceptance. Instead,
children often fall into a downward spiral of increased aggression with increased peer
rejection (Dodge, Lansford, Burks, Bates, Pettit, Fontaine, & Price, 2003). It then
becomes difficult for these children to gain friendships and break the cycle of peer
rejection and aggression. In addition to peer rejection, aggression is also predictive of
academic adjustment (Ladd & Burgess, 2001).
Aggressive behavior has been linked to social skills and social cognition (Fraser
et al., 2005). Improving these skills can lessen aggression. Further, Ladd and Burgess
(2001) found that when aggressive children were given supportive relationships they
adjusted to school better than children who did not have supportive relationships. This
indicates that if teachers are aware of the connections between aggression and school
adjustment, and the benefit of improved social and social/cognitive skills and supportive
relationships, they will be better able to help a child who struggle with aggressive
behavior.
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Relational Aggression. Aggression is generally thought of in more physical and
overt terms, yet other more covert forms of aggression occur in classrooms. One such
form of aggression is called relational aggression and is defined by Crick, Ostrov, and
Werner as “behaviors in which damage to relationships (or the threat of relationship
damage) serves as the vehicle of harm” (2006, p. 131). Similar to physical aggression,
relational aggression is correlated with negative adjustment outcomes for victims and
aggressors. Although there is a great deal of attention being paid to relational aggression
in the media and schools currently, such attention is often focused on the harm victims do
to themselves because they are bullied. However, there are negative long term
implications for children who are doing the bullying (Crick et al., 2006). Bringing an
awareness of relational aggression will give teachers an understanding of the importance
of instructing on preventative social skills to lessen such aggression.
Children who show high levels of relational aggression are more likely to have
difficulties in the school environment (Crick et al., 2006). For example, many children
who aggress relationally against others have been found to have more hostile intent
attributions in social situations than others (Godleski & Ostrov, 2010). When children are
instructed in specific ways to problem solve and calm down, they are able to reduce
aggressive behaviors and increase social competence (Fraser et al., 2005). Through social
skill training, teachers can instruct children on alternative thinking strategies that could
potentially combat hostile intent attributions as well (Godleski & Ostrov, 2010). Several
curricula provide strategies for teachers to reduce aggression in students. Children who
were part of the Making Choices: Solving Skills for Children program over the course of
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a year showed improvements in social competencies and reduced aggression (Fraser et
al., 2005). The current project includes information about aggression and strategies to
reduce aggression in order to help teachers assist children struggling with aggressive
behavior.
Social Skills. Children begin forming friendships in the early years, often with
peers involved in a similar form of play. They spend time with one another in the early
years trying out social roles and their interactions become more sophisticated over time
as different behaviors are tried out and accepted or rejected (Zsolnai, 2002). In this way,
experience with others is important to allow children to try out how to be a friend.
Children, like adults, remain friends with others who are able to cooperate, negotiate,
communicate, and have a give-and-take of ideas. Peers need to meet others’ emotional
needs in order to make the jump successfully from peer to friend. As they grow older,
children are interested in friends who are similar to them in some way (Engle et al.,
2010).
The ability to cooperate with others is an important skill for friendship formation
and successful peer interactions. Friendship provides opportunities for children to play
with one another without debilitating conflicts that end in avoidance or aggression.
Zsolnai (2002) states that social cooperation is a social skill learned through experiences
that model this skill and allow children to imitate it. Improving cooperation among
children may greatly improve the experience of the entire group, including the teacher.
Browning, Davis, and Resta (2000) found that children in first grade who participated in
classroom meetings had improved cooperation skills; instances of both verbal and
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physical aggression were also reduced. This strategy is an older method stemming from
the Positive Discipline series of books and facilitates conflict resolution and social
cooperation through teaching children specific choices to work out problems. The act of
coming together as a class to discuss problems may enhance a cooperative environment
as it gives children the messages that the entire class is responsible for the cohesion of the
classroom environment rather than the individuals involved. Instructing teachers how to
model and implement strategies that can help children cooperate with one another can
facilitate improved cooperation in the classroom.
The give-and-take of a friendship, or reciprocity, is another important element of
children’s interactions, even at a young age (Hartup & Abesassis, 2002). When observing
a room full of unacquainted preschoolers over the course of a week, one group of
researchers cited reciprocity along with emotional control to increase children’s
friendship abilities (Dunsmore, Noguchi, Garner, Casey, & Bhullar, 2008). They looked
at children’s ability to initiate play and receive input from others in the course of play as
well as the ability to work through conflict to assess children’s reciprocity. These are all
important skills to maintain friendships. Further, when playing with peers, children also
need to be able to listen to others and allow peers to contribute (Dunsmore et al., 2008).
Conflict Resolution. Being able to commit to peer interactions when conflicts
arise, rather than abandon the interaction, is necessary to move past peer play and into
friendship territory (Dunsmore et al., 2008). Thus, conflict resolution is an important
behavioral component of social competence. Conflict resolution allows children “to solve
problems creatively and in alternative ways while taking into consideration their own
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personal interests as well as those of their group” (Zsolnai, 2002, p.319). As Dunsmore et
al. (2008) have reported, children who are able to stay and work through conflict are
more likely to be the children with friends. Having a friend who explodes in anger or
becomes verbally unkind is not someone that adults, let alone children, seek out to spend
time with. It is only natural that the ability to work towards an amicable solution would
entice others to want to become friends. The current project will allow pre-service
teachers to understand the skills involved in peer relations. Moreover, teachers will gain
resources to further develop these skills within the classroom.
Emotional Competence
Emotional competence is defined by Eisenberg et al. as “an understanding of
one’s own and others’ emotions, the tendency to display emotion in a situationally and
culturally appropriate manner, and the ability to inhibit or modulate experienced and
expressed emotion and emotionally derived behavior as needed to achieve goals in a
socially acceptable manner” (1998, p. 242). This competence allows children to
understand what feelings are in themselves as well as others and what interactions and
expressions are appropriate. These skills are often in place by the preschool years but will
continue to develop and improve throughout childhood (Shaffer, 2005). Three distinct
components of emotional competence are detailed in this review: emotion regulation,
emotion understanding, and emotion expressivity. These components will be part of the
handbook and presentation created for the current project.
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Emotion Regulation. This component of emotion competence allows children to
control their emotional responses and how they experience emotion (Fried, 2011).
Emotion regulation corresponds positively with children’s attention and persistence
(Fantuzzo, Bulotsky-Shearer, McDermott, McWayne, Frye, & Perlman, 2007). This
competence is also negatively correlated to aggression, inattention, and hyperactivity
(Fantuzzo et al., 2007). This competency is, at its simplest, a product of self-control, and,
at its most complex, is the route by which children can suppress feelings to achieve a
higher goal. Being able to react appropriately when emotions are at play can be difficult
for young children, but is key for positive interactions and classroom experiences
(Fantuzzo et al., 2007; Fried, 2011).
In a study of children enrolled in Head Start, Fantuzzo et al. (2007) looked at
emotion regulation and school readiness. The sample consisted of 1,764 children who
were rated on a scale of 144 items observed by teachers around their interactions within
the classroom. Children who exhibited regulatory behaviors had more positive social
interactions when compared with children who lacked emotion regulation. Emotion
regulation was also associated with attention and self-control. Similarly, children who
lacked these skills showed disengagement behaviors in academics and were found to be
at greater risk of school failure.
According to Fried (2011), repeated exposure to emotions in different situations
can give children experience in managing emotions, which can result in greater emotion
regulation. Emotion expression and recognition are also intertwined with emotion
regulation and Fried suggests that these skill sets be coached and instructed upon to better
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improve regulation. Fried found that students benefitted from using self-talk (telling
oneself to focus or think positively) and projection strategies (envisioning how success
will feel) in order to regulate emotions during school. Modeling and directly instructing
teachers to use such strategies can improve emotion regulation in the classroom.
Emotion Understanding. Emotion understanding is the cognitive component of
emotional competence. It includes the “the capacity to understand emotion in facial
expressions, behavioral cues, and social contexts” (Trentacosta & Fine, 2009, p. 1). This
skill set begins to emerge and grow early in life and is mastered between the ages of 2
and 4 years for most children (Rhoades, Greenberg, & Domitrovich, 2008). At school
entry, most children are fully aware of emotions and what causes them, indicating that
this skill continues to develop in the early years of childhood (Shaffer, 2005).
Recognizing emotions in others is a skill that changes between the early years and
adulthood, according to Widen and Russell (2010). This skill is a component of emotion
knowledge. In the early years, emotion recognition is based on facial expressions. Over
time, this skill progresses from recognizing one base emotional category, such as
happiness, and then adding one at a time over the first few years (Widen & Russell,
2010). As emotion recognition develops, children begin to not only recognize the facial
expression, but are able to understand why people are reacting in certain ways. By
understanding emotions in others, children can receive information about their
environment. A look of fear in another can convey to a child that there is something to be
afraid of and this information sharing is likely the evolutionary basis for human’s ability
to express and recognize emotions socially. Further, the social information shared
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through emotion recognition allows children to alter their own behavior to respond in
socially acceptable ways. This is an important skill in social settings because it allows
children and adults alike to respond appropriately to others’ feelings.
While emotion understanding is linked to development, there are also individual
differences in children’s emotion knowledge that are linked to experiences with parents
and other adults (Raver, 2004). For example, Denham, Bassett, and Wyatt (2010) have
found that parental socialization practices in which emotions are “coached” are linked to
greater emotion understanding. More work should be done to improve children’s
awareness and knowledge of emotions as a preemptive to reduce behavior problems and
improve social competence (Trentacosta & Fine, 2009). Understanding emotion
knowledge and how it correlates to social competence will be of benefit to teachers
seeking to improve social competence in children and is one topic presented in the
current project.
Emotion Expressivity. Emotion expressivity is defined by Shaffer as “frequent
expression of more positive emotions and relatively infrequent displays of negative ones”
(2005, p. 121). At a microsystem level, it can be easy to deduct that children who are
often in positive moods are likely to positively affect both the adults they interact with as
well as other children. Conversely, Gest, Graham-Bermann, and Hartup (2001) found that
children who were rated as “usually sad” by peers had fewer friends and were the least
liked by other children.
It is also important to understand the socialization of emotion expressivity as it is
an important element in why some children may show differences in emotional
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expressivity. Parents and early caregivers provide children continuous feedback through
their reactions to children’s expression of emotion. These reactions will be reflective of
the car giver’s beliefs around emotion and are called emotion-related socialization
behaviors (ERSB’s) (Eisenberg et al., 1998). These interactions (and even lack of
reactions) will tell a child what adults believe to be appropriate and they can vary greatly
due to culture. Therefore, children may come to school with wide ranges of emotion
expression and not be lacking in this area, but simply be socialized by different cultural
influences. According to Eisenberg et al. (1998), however, the suppression of emotion
may lead to lower levels of social competence and children who tend to be more negative
in expression.
Research has indicated that the over-expressiveness of parents during children’s
early years correlates to future accurate emotion recognition (Dunsmore, Her,
Halberstadt, & Perez-Rivera, 2009; Pelligrini, 2002). This is often witnessed when young
children are spoken to in a slower voice and more emphasis is given to key emotion
words. Pelligrini (2002) ascertained in his study of rough-and-tumble play that parents
will engage in exaggerated motions to signify to young children that they are engaging in
play fighting to better communicate to children their intent. For example, they will overly
hunch their shoulders and make rhythmic movements with their hands. This type of
scenario works to train children to properly encode emotions through exaggerated
behaviors as it highlights for children where to focus. Dunsmore et al. (2009) similarly
found that as children begin middle childhood, parents lower their expressivity and
children are able to accurately recognize emotion. Elementary school teachers may
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benefit from understanding this developmental change as it can directly relate to
actionable items to assist children in developing appropriate levels of emotional
expressivity in the classroom.
Social Cognition
Social cognitive competence consists of cognitive skills that allow children to
understand social interactions and choose particular behavioral responses (Fenning,
Baker, & Juvonen, 2011). Children who have mastered social cognitive skills are likely to
interact with their immediate environment effectively. They can determine what they
need and how to best get those needs met. Further, they can understand the needs of
others and how to interact or react appropriately with these individuals. Besides the
recognition and interpretation of emotion discussed in the previous section, there are two
domains of social cognition related to social competence that are important to children’s
development: perspective taking and social problem solving.
Perspective Taking. Perspective taking is the ability to take another person’s
perspective in a social setting. This includes not only the ability to recognize an emotion,
but also the ability to imagine how someone who is experiencing that emotion feels
(Shaffer, 2005). A prerequisite of empathy, perspective taking has been found to enact
the same section of the brain as self-reflection (Ames, Jenkins, Bananji, & Mitchell,
2008). Thus, children who are able to take another person’s perspective are simply able to
imagine themselves in the same scenario or emotional response. Having low perspectivetaking ability has been positively correlated with lower pro-social actions (Knafo,
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Steinberg, & Goldner, 2011). This study looked at both compliant behaviors and selfinitiated behaviors in 83 sibling pairs between the ages of 36 and 72 months. In compliant
behaviors, the children were told an emotion and specifically asked for something
whereas the self-initiated behaviors relied on the children to do something without
explicit requests. They found that children with low perspective-taking levels were
somewhat able to use pro-social behaviors when required for compliance, but were much
less able to self-initiate these pro-social behaviors. It is important for children to respond
effectively in social interactions to not only be productive members of the classroom, but
to have fulfilling relationships with their peers.
Social Problem Solving. Teaching children to have regulation skills, social skills,
and the skills to negotiate emotions and needs in themselves and others are all part of
social problem solving (Heydenberk & Heydenberk, 2007). In a classroom with many
students and a large amount of goals to achieve, it is often improbable to stop the class at
every conflict, so it is important for children to learn effective problem solving skills.
Further, our society continually experiences “profound consequences to bullying and
conflict” and social problem solving may work to combat the negative experiences that
can result from these trends in schools (Heydenberk & Heydenberk, 2007, P. 119).
The implementation of conflict resolution programs has been found to improve
classroom environment and reduce aggression (Caselman, 2005; Heydenberk &
Heydenberk, 2007). For example, the Stop and Think impulse control program has found
negative correlations between children with low impulse control and increased aggression
to be improved with their program (Caselman, 2005). This program instructs children
35
how to use problem solving by stopping and thinking about all the possible outcomes of
their interactions. Children often need direct strategies for concepts such as these when
they are struggling with behavior problems and thus respond well to such programs.
Another program was used with children in kindergarten and first grade in a
school that, despite years of teaching manners and politeness skills, was still experiencing
aggression throughout the school (Heydenberk & Heydenberk, 2007). When children
were tested before the program, they could identify disrespectful behaviors, but they
could not determine effective ways to solve problems (Heydenberk & Heydenberk,
2007). To instruct the 71 sampled children on social problem solving, this program used
class check-ins each morning to allow children to share feelings with the group through Imessages. This concept allowed children to recognize emotion and feelings in others as
well as to facilitate an arena to discuss problems as a group. Children were also involved
in conflict resolution circles where they learned and practiced a formula for solving
problems. They practiced telling their story without interrupting one another in turn,
paraphrasing one another, and then forming solutions. These children showed
significantly reduced physical and verbal aggression. At the end of the program, there
were declines in bullying behavior, cliques, racist remarks, harassment, fighting,
disruptive behavior, and distrust among students (Heydenberk & Heydenberk, 2007, p.
124). With results such as this, it is beneficial for teachers to find avenues to instruct
children on social problem solving.
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Promoting Social Competence
The individual social competencies previously discussed contribute to an overall
successful school experience. As Romano et al. (2010) found, kindergarten social skills
are predictive of math and reading outcomes in third grade. Rimm-Kaufman et al. (2000)
reported teachers themselves viewed children lacking social competence to be a
distraction to the class environment. It is logical to conclude that children who are not
able to get along with others and control themselves will likely not thrive in the school
setting. Social competence is linked to academic achievement and should be addressed in
such a way that children gain the skills they lack in this arena the same way they are
given assistance to learn how to read. To better promote academic success, teachers must
develop skills to promote such social competencies.
Much of the developmental and educational literature on social competence in
children can be used to help children who are deficient in certain social domains (Zsolnai,
2002). Educators can use research-based strategies to help children maintain and improve
positive social and emotional skills. Blair (2002) recommends that interventions focusing
on social competence become the norm in the preschool and early elementary years. The
aim of the current project is to provide this research-based information on promoting
social competence to future elementary school teachers.
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Factors Predicting Social Competence
Understanding what factors predict social competence allows for a greater
understanding of how social competence can be facilitated and improved. Quality parent
and teacher relationships can predict children’s social and emotional development both
negatively and positively (Garner et al., 2008, Howes, 2000). Similarly, the classroom
environment can also predict social competence in children (Peisner-Feinberg, Burchinal,
Clifford, Culkin, Howes, Kagan, & Yazejian, 2001). Direct instruction can predict
competencies and often improve social competencies in areas children may be lacking
(Webster-Stratton et al., 2008). The research in each of these areas will be discussed as
well as current research around these factors.
Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship. The parent-child relationship is
arguably more important than any other influence in a child’s early development. In
regards to social competence, the parent is the primary socializing agent in a child’s life.
Parents socialize their children with each interaction, and parent-child relationships
provide an important setting for developing social competence. The effects of this
socialization are seen in children’s social competence and are often a topic of research.
In one such study, Garner et al. (2008) investigated parental influence on emotion
competence. First, mother-child conversations around emotions with children aged 41-67
months were recorded and analyzed for content using a wordless picture book that
contained images of all different emotions. Parents were not instructed specifically on
how to tell the story, allowing researchers to see how they talk about emotions with their
children. Simultaneously, the children’s verbal utterances where counted, analyzed, and
38
scored. Next, children were exposed to ten vignettes in which they had to pick a face that
corresponded to the expected emotion after a scenario to assess their emotion knowledge.
The amount of times they mistakenly attributed anger to a vignette was considered
separately to create an anger-perception-bias rating. Finally, the children were grouped
into same-sex triads and recorded for a twenty-minute play session. The session began
with free play and then the children participated in two activities requiring cooperation.
These sessions were coded for overt and covert aggression as well as prosocial behavior.
Garner et al. analyzed associations between parental socialization behavior and
behavior, emotion, and knowledge components of social competence in children.
Mothers who explained emotions in greater depth had children who did well on emotion
knowledge assessments and showed higher levels of prosocial behavior when compared
to children of mothers who did not explain emotions as well. Conversely, children who
had mothers whose emotion explanations were high were also more educated in emotion
as arsenal and showed greater levels of covert aggression. Also, the mother’s use of
positive emotion themes negatively correlated with overt aggression as well as children
attributing anger incorrectly in vignettes.
Parents often engage in direct coaching of their children in peer interactions
during the preschool years (Books, 2004). Parents are often heard instructing children
how to greet a child on the playground or introduce oneself to a cashier in the early years.
It is optimal that children gain these skills in the years as they are more intrinsically
driven to alter their behavior to gain social interactions (Brooks, 2004, p. 301). However,
children can still gain these skills in the early elementary years with coaching from
39
parents (Frankel, Myatt, Sugar, Whitham, Gorospe, & Laugeson, 2010). Children on the
autism spectrum were effectively coached on friendship and social interactions by parents
in research by Frankel et al. (2010). These findings are indicative of parental roles in
teachable moments around social competence and how they can positively affect children
in a multitude of ways when done well. This research may be extrapolated to other adults
who work with children on a consistent basis. Teachers who engage in positive emotion
socialization and direct coaching may be able to assist their students developing social
competence.
Quality of the Teacher-Child Relationship. Research indicates that positive
teacher-child relationships are important in the earliest years of school (Vitaro, Boivin,
Brendgen, Ginard, & Dionne, 2012). According to Vitaro et al. (2012) the quality of the
relationship between a kindergartener and their teacher will predict the quality of the
relationship between the student and their first grade teacher as the students are likely to
replicate the interactions they learned to be true of student-teacher relationships. Further,
Vitaro et al. (2012) found that the quality of this relationship is also correlated to
academic outcomes in grade one. Howes (2000) conducted a longitudinal study to
understand how child-teacher relationships in preschool predicted child outcomes
through second grade. In this study rating scales were used to rate peer play, class
behaviors, and child-teacher relationships over the course of five years. Results supported
positive child-teacher relationships during the preschool years, finding that they were
predictive of high second grade prosocial ratings. When a child is able to establish a
caring relationship with a teacher, they are not only safe to explore the environment, but
40
they are also safe to engage with others in the social realm. Further, the authors argue that
children use the first year of school entry, even when this is preschool, to map
information about how school and teachers work and then replicate this scenario each
year with a new teacher. Accordingly, a teacher with a strong social classroom
environment and positive teacher-child relationships will create students that pattern their
future teacher-child relationships in similar ways (Howes, 2000). This can create future
teachers who respond to the child-initiated interactions in similar ways, leading to a
pattern of close child-teacher relationships that are likely to create greater social
competencies by default of teachers being more connected to children.
Educating pre-service teachers on the importance of the teacher-child relationship
in building social competence can allow them to understand their students on a deeper
and more meaningful level. If teachers are more knowledgeable in this area, they may
feel a greater sense of agency to help children and can encourage fellow teachers to work
harder to connect with students with whom they may not easily connect. In creating this
handbook, which educates teachers on both social competence and the importance of
teacher-child relationships in building those competencies in children, the current project
can potentially make significant strides in helping children reach optimal development.
Teachers who are interested in assessing their quality of interaction with children
can benefit from a tool created specifically to enhance social competence. The Center on
Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) has created a tool called
the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool (TPOT). This tool uses the Teaching Pyramid
previously discussed to look to the classroom environment, routines, and teacher-child
41
interactions to determine in what ways teachers are succeeding to support social
competence as well as in what areas they can focus to create improvements. The TPOT
relies on a trained observer to complete the tool with subsequent coaching of the teacher
over a school year.
Quality of the Classroom Environment. The environment plays an important
role in the classroom. It can either engage children, thus limiting problem behaviors, or it
can create chaos and lead to a high incidence of such problem behavior. Further, the
norms and social interactions accepted into the environment can instruct and support
social competencies or allow them to remain stagnant. Creating a high-quality
environment is of great importance in the early years because it is a time when children
are learning how to function socially in a group. A high-quality environment, once
established, can benefit the entire classroom, making both the teacher’s day more
manageable and decreasing teacher burnout (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).
In the research previously discussed for teacher-child quality by Howes (2000), a
positive social and emotional classroom climate contributed to children’s development by
decreasing aggression and anti-social behaviors in second grade. Teachers who create a
positive social climate early into the school year through things such as routine, direct
instruction, and conflict resolution have classrooms with fewer conduct problems
(Webster-Stratton et al., 2008). Such positive school climates not only control the day-today environment, but can teach children how to behave in school. This can then be
generalized by children, who can work to strengthen positive social competencies outside
the classroom.
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Understanding what is indicative of high-quality classroom environments is not
the same in every grade and in every class, but there are many tools that can help to
assess classroom environment. One classroom tool is the Classroom Assessment Scoring
System (CLASS). This assessment looks at the environment of the classroom to
determine how optimal the environment is. Additionally, the CLASS rating will also
consider the quality of interactions between the teachers and students as well as the
overall positivity of the class (La Paro, Pianta, & Stuhlman, 2004). Using tools such as
this can be a first step in improving environments for young children to gain optimal
social competence support.
Transitioning into Kindergarten
Children in America typically begin their formal schooling at around the age of
five years. At this age, some social competencies may still be developing in many
children, yet teachers still expect them to come to school ready to learn (Rimm-Kaufman
et al., 2000). However, it is often the case that students come to school with deficiencies
in social competencies that impede their learning (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2000). RimmKaufman et al. solicited the feedback of more than 3,500 kindergarten teachers across the
nation on children’s readiness for kindergarten. The teachers reported that children were
in need of more social competencies before attending school. Fifty percent of students in
a class were reported to need further development in social interactions and group work
43
by one-third of the teachers sampled. A similar amount of children were reported by
teachers as having no experience in preschool. This amount of children needing more
assistance to transition successfully into the school environment is likely altering the
classroom environment negatively without programs and knowledge in place to assist
teachers.
Without successful strategies to assist children in making gains to social
competencies in kindergarten, research indicates the outcomes for children are negative.
Buhs and Ladd (2001) found a path in their results around kindergarten children’s
transition and peer rejection. When children were rejected by their peers, they, in turn,
became anti-social with peers. This negative treatment of peers led to decreased
participation, which led to declines in achievement. Additionally, children’s emotional
adjustment declined as a result of peer rejection. Comparatively, children with greater
social competencies upon entering kindergarten will not be as likely to experience such
negative outcomes when starting school. The attitudes children shape in the early years
can foster their positive feelings toward school for many years to come. Similarly, when
negative attitudes are developed early, they too can last over time.
The need for direct instruction in social competencies has been identified but
there has not been a widespread solution put into place. There are various types of social
and emotional curriculum, but common and regular use are not available. Further, states
have not adopted and implemented guidelines in the way academic standards are
implemented. The focus remains on academics that will be tested due to No Child Left
Behind regulations. After an extensive review on children’s brain development and early
44
social and emotional development, Blair (2002) argues that not only do social
competencies need to be instructed, but that they should be done in the early years. He
insists that programs should combine typical education with social and emotional
education. Furthermore, these programs need to be run by instructors able to assess where
children are and tailor the instruction to differing needs within children.
Because of the importance of instruction and focus on social competence in early
years in predicting future academic success, the current project focuses on the early
elementary years with particular focus on the transition to kindergarten. It is hoped that
such a resource will become part of the teacher preparation program at CSUS.
Social Competence Curriculum
Adding any curriculum, especially curriculum that may need tailoring, is a
challenge in today’s schools. Educators are required to have children maintain a certain
level of test scores or funding and jobs may be lost due to the No Child Left Behind bill
passed by the federal government almost a decade ago. However, implementing such
curriculum can positively affect academic success over time for many children (Romano
et al., 2010). Although it is challenging to add curriculum which fosters social
competence, it has a lasting positive effect on the life of the child through positive social
interactions and academic success. Therefore, it is important that educators begin to
45
implement social and emotional curriculum in the classroom in the early years of
elementary education.
When children are lacking social competencies, it is often best to offer direct
instruction in these areas. This can be offered to children individually as needed or it can
be added as a component of the overall curriculum to which the entire class is exposed.
There are many different social and emotional curricula that have been created and
researched from which teachers can choose. Understanding what is available and the
research derived from it can allow for a greater understanding of not only what exists, but
what types of specific skills can be targeted for improvement in social competencies.
The Incredible Years (Dinosaur School)
When completing research on this project, several social competence curricula in
the literature were often found to be effective. One curriculum of interest to those
working with young children is called The Incredible Years Child Training Curriculum
but is commonly referred to as Dinosaur School. This was created to implement with
children between the ages of 3 and 7 diagnosed with severe behavior problems. The
program has parent and teacher training, classroom management, and curriculum for
children. Dinosaur School targets social competencies, particularly aggression, and
classroom practices to create supportive and positive environments.
Webster-Stratton et al. (2008) evaluated Dinosaur School using children from
preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. They compared classrooms where Dinosaur
School was implemented with control classrooms in a total of 153 classrooms. They
46
found that classes using Dinosaur School showed not only individual improvements in
social competencies, but the overall class environment showed more positive interactions.
Children exhibited fewer behavior problems in intervention classrooms compared to
control classrooms. Teachers reported feeling very satisfied with this program.
Similarly, a study in Jamaica sought to help preschool teachers gain control of their
classrooms and used this program to do so (Baker-Henningham et al., 2009). Preschool
environments in this developing country mirror some of America’s lowest SES
populations and researchers were interested to know if this program could be applied in
such a setting. They found similar results in that classroom management appeared greatly
improved. Teachers used fewer directives and had positive classroom climates in
intervention classrooms. In control classrooms, the overall quality of classrooms declined
from the start of the school year to the end. It seems likely that, in classrooms where there
are more instances of misbehavior and teachers without effective class management or
the knowledge of how to improve students’ social competencies, the environments would
deteriorate. This training has proven to be effective in improving the overall climate and
teacher skills set to better manage their classroom. However, in order to become trained
in Dinosaur School, one must attend a training program. These are offered for fees
ranging between $150 and $400 in Seattle, Washington. This lack of accessibility makes
it difficult for average pre-service teachers to take advantage of this possible resource.
Having access to the research in this area, however, can help to share some of the
effective strategies used to improve social competence that is used in this program.
47
Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies Curriculum (PATHS)
Another curriculum frequently researched in social competence is the Promoting
Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum. PATHS consists of ready-made
lessons that span the following three topics: readiness and self-control, feelings and
relationships, and interpersonal cognitive problem solving (Greenberg, Kusche, & Riggs,
2004). Additionally, self-esteem and peer relationships are strengthened throughout all
three topics. Each topic contains between 12 and 56 lesson plans, providing teachers with
a curriculum that can be easily accessed and implemented within the classroom.
In one interesting study, Riggs, Greenberg, Kusche, and Pentz (2006) considered
the development of children’s brains on their verbal abilities as well as their inhibitory
control. These researchers used PATHS in an attempt to improve social and emotional
competence through teaching children to stop and walk themselves through steps of
problem solving. This curriculum specifically targets aspects of brain development where
connections are not quite formed with the aim that through practicing these steps,
children will strengthen the connections that improve executive function and impulsivity
while simultaneously learning the language that goes along with such experiences.
When studying this curriculum in second and third grade children, results showed
children who experienced the PATHS curriculum had better inhibitory control than
children who were not exposed to PATHS. These children also had improved verbal
fluency which was negatively correlated to acts of internalizing behaviors after one year.
Similarly, greater inhibitory control caused external and internal behaviors to decrease
after one year (Riggs et al., 2006).
48
Despite the basis in neurocognitive processes and ease of use, there are still
roadblocks to teachers implementing PATHS. Similar to Dinosaur School, the expense of
using PATHS is often too high for teachers and school districts alike. The curriculum for
one preschool or kindergarten classroom is $799. Further, each year a new curriculum is
required. Although there is no training course or travel required, teachers are provided a
guide for implementing the program. In such a scenario, there can be differences in
implementation, which can lead to varying results between classrooms. Researchers
assessing the effectiveness of curriculum such as PATHS and Dinosaur School spend
time training teachers for the test group and not training teachers in the control groups. It
is likely that results indicating the effectiveness of these programs are due to the program
themselves. However, it is also likely that the implementation of training on social
competencies in general had a positive impact on classrooms.
The Current Project
It is important for children to have the skills and abilities to not only read and
write, but to navigate their social environments successfully. Our current education
system is currently adapting to the changes and pressures presented by No Child Left
Behind, which can arguably detract from a focus on social competence in children.
However, academic performance is directly linked to social competence. Therefore,
giving teachers an understanding of the components that make up social competence as
49
well as ways in which these skills may be identified and developed may positively affect
children’s social competence as well as their academic performance. Further, it is
important to provide educators with training on social competencies of the children in
their care as it has been shown to not only improve children’s social competence, but also
reduce conduct issues in the class environment (Baker-Henningham et al., 2009).
Teachers must understand the range of social competencies and have the tools to
assess where students are within these ranges. Teachers must also have an understanding
of the types of strategies that can be used to increase children’s competences in different
types of social skills. Although teachers can purchase ready-made curriculum, it is often
expensive. Further, teachers must learn and implement the material on their own. This
may lead to differences in results. Therefore, providing teacher training related to social
competence as part of regular teaching training without cost is an important step in
improving children’s social competence in the early elementary years.
Therefore, the goal of the current project was to create a handbook and
presentation for future teachers containing some of the important research-based
information about promoting social competence in their students. Such a handbook and
presentation may be considered a positive first step in the direction of improved social
competencies, enhanced learning environments, and improved academic achievement in
children.
50
Chapter 3
METHOD
Project Design and Target Audience
The purpose of this project was to create a handbook that details social
competence, its components, and the importance of developing social competencies in
children during the early elementary years. A project was selected to address the needs of
new teachers entering the field of education who may not have a background in early
childhood education; thus, the intended audience for this project is pre-service teachers
who plan to educate in the younger grades (k-2). Pre-service teachers may not have
degrees in Child Development and therefore may benefit greatly from social competence
education. Students who have come to the credential program with bachelor degrees in
fields other than Child Development or Education are those who can derive the most
information from the handbook and presentation.
Moreover, this handbook would ultimately benefit teachers who are already in the
field. Although many teachers do have information around social competence, it is
possible for educated and tenured teachers to still not have a grasp of social competence
or the academic implications that strong social competence has in children. This
handbook and presentation could greatly impact current classrooms if they were utilized
in teacher development days by schools seeking to build more social competence
education into their classrooms.
51
Handbook Development
The researcher engaged in several steps to develop the handbook. These included
a literature review, a review of social curriculum available through the internet,
interviews with professors working in teacher education, and a presentation of the
handbook and PowerPoint to upper division Child Development students.
Literature Review
A literature review was conducted to understand multiple components of social
competence and how they affect children from preschool through the school years. Social
competencies were first broken into three components: behavior, emotion, and
knowledge. From this, different skills were listed and researched. The behavioral
component led to reviews of literature around physical and relational aggression,
friendship skills, peer relationships, conflict resolution, and problem solving. The
emotional component led to reviews of literature around emotional regulation,
expressivity, and knowledge. The knowledge component or social cognition contained
perspective taking and emotion recognition. These topics were searched to find
definitions, what the lack of these skills and the presence of these skills are indicative of,
and how children can gain these skills.
The literature review was reviewed and rewritten in simplified terms with
examples included. This document was too extensive to function as a handbook, so it was
then used to pull orderly terms, definitions, and short examples to create the handbook.
52
The list of topics was shortened to those topics that are the most relevant to new teachers
per feedback from teacher education professors. Aggression, relational aggression, peer
status, peer rejection, conflict resolution, emotion regulation, emotion knowledge and
friendship skills were selected to be the main topics in the handbook. An introduction
section defined social competence as well as why it is important for children. The final
section provided resources for teachers.
In the final draft of the handbook, peer status and rejection were combined into
one topic and were listed as subheadings with aggression and relational aggression under
social competence. Similarly, emotion regulation and emotion knowledge were combined
into one topic and were subheadings along with conflict resolution listed under social
emotional skills. Friends and friendship skills remained as a single topic. The
introduction and resources at the end remained much the same.
Review of Existing Curricula
Further research was conducted to discover the types of curricula that currently
exist to address deficits in social competence in the classroom environment. Results
indicated that several programs are available. All of these are based in research and half
have also been studied for effectiveness. A review of the websites that sell two different
programs was conducted to understand the materials provided and the cost that teachers
pay. The scholarly literature was consulted for evidence of empirical testing of these
existing programs. Two of the programs had impressive research backing up the
effectiveness of their programs, so they were included with emphasis on this point. Two
53
of the programs did not have research completed on their effectiveness, yet were based in
research.
Interviewing Teacher Educators
Two teacher educators were interviewed to further develop this handbook. The
first teacher educator was Dr. Frank Lilly, a faculty member at California State
University, Sacramento (CSUS) in the single-subject credential program. Dr. Lilly has a
background in human development and was very supportive and interested in the project.
The interview with Dr. Lilly was an informal meeting in his office. My first question was,
“What social competence training do students enrolled in teacher credential programs at
CSUS get?” Dr. Lilly then explained that he worked with single subject students and that
multiple subject programs are the professors that train early elementary students. We
discussed his background in development and how important he feels social competence
is, while he sent e-mails to professors in the multiple subjects department. He referred Dr.
Lana Daly be contacted to give her perspective.
Dr. Daly reviewed the handbook and met with this researcher. She shared areas
she felt were of importance in social competence education for new teachers as well as
what is currently happening in her own cohort of pre-service teachers. Her cohort is also
part of CSUS, but is a multiple-subject program, so her students are the target audience
for this project.
Dr. Daly discussed the importance of elementary children feeling as though they
are part of the school group as this belonging facilitates social competence through social
54
skills and relationships. She attempts to incorporate this concept into her education of
pre-service teachers through a program called Tribes. As Tribes was not a resource found
during the literature review of this project, the information from Dr. Daly was included in
the presentation as a resource.
When Dr. Daly was asked which skills she felt should be focused on the most, she
felt that new teachers struggle the most with disruptive and aggressive behaviors, so these
items were put in the handbook. She shared how supportive her cohort was around social
competence and ways in which she challenges her students to write social development
training into their lesson plans in the same way they would do a math activity. I was
inspired by her initial question of “What do you hope for your students in 20 years?” and
added it to the presentation as well.
From this meeting, the handbook was revised to encompass more ways to help
teachers deal with aggression and classroom control as those were areas Dr. Daly felt
student teachers needed real ideas. Dr. Daly felt that more than just definitions, preservice teachers would benefit from ideas of how to improve such skills. Therefore, some
sources of articles I felt could most benefit pre-service teachers were cited in the
handbook. I also added some of the resources she recommended around Tribes training to
the handbook.
Creating the Presentation and PowerPoint
A PowerPoint was developed to support the handbook with examples (see
appendix B). The PowerPoint contained a section entitled “What can you do” at the end
55
of each topic to better give useful ideas on how to help children gain these skills
practically. This PowerPoint (see appendix B) was developed by using the handbook as
an outline (see appendix A). Once the material was outlined into a PowerPoint
presentation, talking points around scenarios exemplifying the concepts were added to the
notes of the PowerPoint (see appendix B). Ways that children were assisted in developing
social competence in both the research conducted as well as the resources suggested were
given to help connect practical use to the concepts learned during lecture.
Evaluation of the Project
In order to get feedback around the usefulness of the material as well as what
more they felt would be helpful to new teachers, the handbook and PowerPoint were
presented to two sections of an upper division child development course in social and
emotional development at the end of the spring 2012 semester. This course is one of two
culminating upper division classes that students majoring in Child Development must
take at the end of the bachelor’s program. Several members of the class have the intention
of entering teacher preparation in the following year, and it was their responses to the
presentation that were of special interest in evaluating the current project. The course
focuses on social development in children. Thus, it can be assumed that, at the end of the
semester, the students in this class are familiar with much of the content of the handbook,
56
albeit not as it directly relates to the classroom. The presentation lasted close to an hour
with each group.
Evaluation forms were completed by 67 of the upper division child development
students enrolled in the course. Four questions asked the student to rank items on a Likert
Scale from one to five, with 1 representing “strongly agree” and 5 representing “strongly
disagree” (see Appendix C). The items were: (1) The information was clear and concise,
(2) My understanding of social competence in young children has improved as a direct
result of this presentation, (3) I will keep and utilize the handbook provided upon
entering the teaching field, and (4) The presentation provided me with useful information
about children’s social emotional development. The open-ended questions were: (1)
What information presented today do you feel will most benefit your future role as a
teacher and (2) What information do you think was missing from the presentation that
you think should be included in future presentation. General feedback was also solicited
from the course instructor, a tenured faculty member in the Child Development
department. The results of this evaluation are presented and discussed in Chapter 4.
57
Chapter 4
DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This project was an attempt to educate pre-service teachers of early elementary
students (k-2) on social competencies in children. Research indicates the importance of
social competence, yet there can be a disconnection between the education teachers
receive in credential programs, the expectations of districts and parents, and the
importance of these social competencies. Thus, a handbook was created in an attempt to
help educate pre-service early elementary teachers (k-2) on social competencies
important to the healthy development of children.
Evaluation Results
Evaluation forms were completed by 67 upper division child development
students enrolled in a culminating social development course. Four questions asked the
student to rank items on a Likert Scale from one to five, with 1 representing “strongly
agree” and 5 representing “strongly disagree”. The final two questions were open
responses questions for the students to provide information that they felt was most
beneficial as well as what they felt was missing from the presentation. All students
completed the Likert Scale questions. Most students (62) completed the first open ended
response (what information will most benefit your future role as a teacher) while
58
approximately one third of students completed the second open ended question (what
information was missing from this presentation).
The first item on the Likert Scale sought to evaluate the clearness of the
information presented. The mean score for these responses on a scale of 1 to 5 was 1.66,
indicating that the majority of the students strongly agreed that the information was clear
and concise. The second item asked students to rate how much their understanding had
improved from the presented information. The mean score for this item was 1.88. The
third item, “I will keep and utilize the handbook provided upon entering the teaching
field” resulted in a mean of 1.17. It is evident from this that the handbook was considered
to be worth keeping by almost every student. The last Likert Scale item attempted to
determine the usefulness of the information provided. This item had an average of 1.15,
so students on the whole felt that the material was useful to them.
The open ended questions were not filled out by all students. All responses were
typed up with exception to those students who responded with simple terms such as
“nothing” or “it was great” (see appendix D). Almost all students responded to the first
question. Some trends in answers were found. Many students responded positively about
the resources provided. The websites, future readings, and the handbook were common
responses. Multiple students felt the applicable items were of importance to future
teaching. For example, one student responded “the ‘what can you do’ sections were
excellent, great advice” and another student said “I think that the information on ways to
handle conflict in the classroom was beneficial”. There was also a trend around new ways
to deal with aggression, indicating that some of these teachers felt ways to deal with
59
aggression would be very useful to them. Approximately one third of students offered
feedback on the second question. The feedback concerned the format of the presentation.
For example, students reported that the PowerPoint “kind of jumped around” and “the
slides are too hard to read, change the color”. Another student felt that the materials
should include culture. Some students reported that felt that the material should involve
classroom activities.
Dr. Julianna Raskauskas was the professor of the course in which the material was
presented and she was able to provide feedback that altered the materials for future use.
She felt that the PowerPoint should combine the multiple applicable-use sections into one
section at the end as so many of the items were redundant. For example, a strong studentteacher relationship is advised to facilitate many aspects of social competence. As many
social competencies develop with the same practices, she felt that the presentation should
be ordered differently. Based on this feedback, an additional section was added at the end
of the handbook which offers ways to help facilitate the development of social
competence.
Recommendations
This handbook was developed to educate pre-service teachers on social
competence so they may enter the classroom better prepared to work with students on
these important skills. The following are recommendations related to implementation of
the handbook as part of teacher training.
60
Improvements to the Handbook
Several issues presented themselves throughout the development of this research
and the resulting project. Reflecting on these items is useful to understand what items
may have had a negative effect on the resulting handbook.
A lack of depth in the research existed and was a limitation to the resulting
handbook. The amount of sub-categories within social competence was broad and it was
difficult to cover the topics in the time allotted. The handbook might have benefited from
a more focused section of social competence. For example, a focus on only social skills
and aggression would have allowed a large number of articles related to behavioral
competencies to be presented. This deeper focus would have allowed for more researchbased ways in which to foster development in this area. Alternatively, offering several
sessions and a larger handbook might have been useful to teachers.
Another area in which this project would have benefited was around the feedback
provided. The handbook was presented to a class of Child Development majors.
Presenting the same information to a group of true pre-service teachers as well as more
teacher educators would have allowed for a greater variance in feedback to assess
perceived usefulness of the handbook. Although the credential program will be provided
with a soft copy of the end product and can alter it in whichever way they see fit, they are
unlikely to get feedback from others before making changes.
Lastly, the form in which feedback was given had several flaws that were not
considered until the forms were collected. The Likert Scale itself was counterintuitive for
the respondents with 1 being “strongly agree” and 5 being “strongly disagree”. Several
61
students started to circle 4s and 5s, but then scratched them out and circled 1s and 2s. It
was intended that the form would have an area to determine if the recipient was a teacher
or had plans to become a teacher as a way of focusing more specifically on future
teachers. However, this item was left off the final draft in error. Although some students
discussed that the handbook would be useful when they teach, the majority of students
did not include this in their open ended questions.
Distribution of Handbook
The handbook was rated by the child development students as something they will
use in the future. The information provided and the resources may be something that can
be referred to when challenges arise or more information is needed.
The completed handbook as well as the matching PowerPoint will be sent to Dr.
Lana Daly of the CSUS credential program. Providing this program with the handbook
and the PowerPoint will allow these items to be used with pre-service teachers. Further,
the materials in soft copy will allow Dr. Daly to alter them to fit into her lesson plans.
CSUS is currently altering their teacher credentialing program to better streamline
the three cohorts. Dr. Daly and the two other professors will be gathering to determine
what the social competence curriculum will include. Adding this handbook as a resource
to pre-service teachers in all three of the cohorts would further expand the audience of
this handbook. Moreover, these staff members have the ability to alter the handbook to fit
the needs of the program. This allows the handbook to become fluid as textbooks change
62
or new research is conducted. The handbook will be a useful item to expand upon rather
than create anew.
In the future, research around the effectiveness of teacher trainings such as this
handbook and alternative social competence education should be conducted. Comparing
students’ social competence levels at the start and end of a school year with teachers with
and without education in this area should be compared to gain a greater understanding of
the effectiveness of social competence education. It is important that social competence
become a measurable item to better aide teachers and, ultimately, children in developing
this competence.
Conclusion
This project was created out of a need to ensure that teachers enter the field
understanding social competence and all of what it is indicative. Research is indicative of
social and emotional behaviors in kindergarten predicting later academic success
(Romano et al., 2010; Trentacosta & Izard, 2007). Peer acceptance corresponds with prosocial behavior (FitzGerald & White, 2003) thus, having low perspective-taking ability
has been positively correlated with lower pro-social actions (Knafo, Steinberg, &
Goldner, 2011). Without ensuring that children meet social competence goals, they will
leave the school environment without the necessary skills to succeed in other areas of
their lives. Social competence training should become a regulated part of both a teacher’s
education and as well as a measurable item in a student’s education to ensure optimal
63
development of this critical skill set. This handbook has been created with ease and
simplicity in mind so that it may be added as either a lesson or a handout in a teacher
preparation program, yet still lead future instructors to more information if they desire
greater depth in social competence. Bronfenbrenner commented on the state of our
culture as one in which people can be socially handicapped and still become adults. This
handbook is a start to a greater and necessary focus on more than just academics in the
education of our children. It is a change that must be made to allow children to grow into
thriving adults, not just adults who can pass a test and get a job.
64
Appendix A
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
Appendix B
Powerpoint Presentation
Social Competence
Michelle Boucher
MA Project
Social and Emotional Competence
Early Years
Kindergarten
Predicts how
successful children
transition into
preschool
Later Years
Predicts peer
acceptance
Indicates future
reading and math
success
Predicts future
academic success
76
Survey of 3,500 Tenured
Kindergarten Teachers
 Teachers reported that on average:
 1 out of 6 students had serious problems adjusting
 1 out of 3 students had minor problems adjusting
In a classroom of 24 children = 4 children acting out a lot
+ 8 children acting out some
12
(or HALF THE CLASS!)
Children who….
Have social competence





Compromise
Negotiate
Share
Help Others
Have Empathy
Need social competence




Tantrum
Aggress
Lack Friends
Don’t Get Social Cues
77
Why do kids need social
competence?
Perceived
Reality
Academic Success
•Academic
Success
•Social Skills
•Contentedness
Contentedness
Social Skills
Aggression
The intention is
to harm another.
78
Predicting
Predicting Aggression
Aggression
Poor
PoorSocial
SocialSkills
SkillsCan
CanIncrease
Increase
Aggression
Aggression
Supportive
SupportiveRelationships
RelationshipsCan
Can
Decrease
DecreaseAggression
Aggression
Relational Aggression
Actions intended to harm
another’s self-esteem,
social status, or
friendships.
79
Factors Common in Relational
Aggression
Emotionally
savvy
Often girls
False intention
beliefs
Peer Status and Peer Rejection
Peer status is where a
child falls in the social
hierarchy within their
peer group. Peer rejection
is the overall rejection of
a child.
80
Peer Rejection
Depression
School engagement
Peer Status and Peer Rejection
Factors
 Social skills or lack thereof
 Aggression
 Important to note that there are uncontrollable factors
81
Social Emotional Skills
Allow children to
have positive
interactions with
their peers
Conflict Resolution
The skills that allow a
child to work through
problems while still
taking others into
consideration
82
Conflict Resolutions Allow Children
to…





Use creativity
Continue play
Maintain relationships
Use compromise
Use negotiation
 AND HAVE FRIENDS!!!!
Emotion Regulation and Emotion
Knowledge
When children are in control of their emotional
experiences and responses, they are regulating their
emotions. Knowing about and how to respond to
emotions is the knowledge component.
83
Children lacking in these skills may…





Lack self-control
Become disruptive
React inappropriately to others
Miss social cues
Have low peer status
Friends and Friendship Skills
Mutual relationships
that allow kids to interact
with one another in
cooperative ways
84
Friendships are linked to
Self-esteem
School adjustment
Loneliness
What can you do?






Calm-down area
Calm-down strategies
Teach friendship skills
Highlight intentions and accidents
Create norms against bullying
Model and exemplify skills needed
85
What can you do?
Directly






Class meetings
Recognize skills
Steps to problem solving
Reflection take-homes
In-class reflections
When appropriate, don’t jump
in
Indirectly







Group work, consistent groups
Buddy systems
Thoughtfulness in pairing kids
Modeling
Stories and books
Discussions
Recall
What you can do…




Know your class and their families, build relationships
Use simple observations to see where kids are
Teach and model self-talk
Create norms of what is and is not acceptable
86
What can you do?
 Use children’s peer acceptance/rejection to indicate
who could use more social skills
 Increase emotion knowledge through awareness
 Work with children to reduce aggressive behaviors
Further Resources
Ready-made curriculum, more
information, and books worth
reading
87
Center on the Emotional Foundations
for Early Learning (CSEFEL)




Book lists
Videos
Parent workshops
Training resources
Based in research, but not yet tested for effectiveness
The Teaching Pyramid
 Format for implementing most
anything in the class
 Considers all aspects of the
environment
 Helps teachers focus in on
individual
Based in research and special education, not validated by
research
88
Second Step





Ready-made curriculum
Not cost-effective
$20 CD would be very helpful
Videos are online
Materials can be viewed online for ideas
This has been researched
Promoting Alternative Thinking
Strategies (PATHS)
 Also ready-made curriculum
 Also not cost-effective
 A great site to look at materials and get ideas
Founded in brain development and researched
89
Recommended Reading
 Positive Discipline Series
 Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities
 What Is It About Tribes?
What do you dream for your students
20 years from now?
90
Appendix C
Evaluation of Presentation
Please circle the number that represents how much you agree with the following
statements.
1. The information clear and concise.
1
2
3
4
Strongly
Agree
5
Strongly
Disagree
2. My understanding of social competence in young children has improved as a direct
result of this presentation.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly
Strongly
Agree
Disagree
3. I will keep and utilize the handbook provided upon entering the teaching field. 1
2
3
4
5
Strongly
Strongly
Agree
Disagree
4. The presentation provided me with useful information about children’s social
emotional development.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly
Strongly
Agree
Disagree
Please provide written responses to the following questions.
1. What information presented today do you feel will most benefit your future role as a
teacher?
2. What information do you think was missing from the presentation that you think
should be included in future presentations?
91
Appendix D
Open Ended Responses
What information presented today do you feel will most benefit your future role as a
teacher?
1. The resources and the booklet
2. All the information about aggression and how to deal with it
3. The general idea of putting all of the information in the same place is helpful and
a wonderful resource
4. I personally like the additional information provided in the PowerPoint and would
like to see it included
5. I will most definitely use the information on the booklet as well as the last part
when you ask where do you see your students in 20 years. An excellent question
never thought about it.
6. All resources provided, I will definitely check out the websites & resources
7. This is not my major, it’s my minor. Not wanting to be a teacher
8. I loved how simple yet direct the handbook is
9. Information on resources for ideas on how to teach social competence
10. I do not actually want to be a teacher, but it helped me as a future parent to instill
theses skills in my children.
11. The knowledge that social competence in connected to later academic success.
12. The “what can you do” sections were excellent. Great advice.
92
13. The resources! Especially the cost effective tips! Also the conflict resolution area
idea, although I have heard it before, you made it realistic.
14. Different strategies for anger management. Establishing rules.
15. PATHS and second step. What to look for and how to prevent bullying.
16. The discussion of strategies and the further resources to read up on strategies to
help regulate behavior are most helpful.
17. It provided me with information regarding useful outside resources that can help a
future educator in a classroom setting.
18. I enjoy your examples of each topic and enjoyed learning in depth about
aggression and peers
19. Some strategies for handling conflict (like the conflict table) and the resources
towards the end of the pamphlet.
20. Direction to books and other material to help further my knowledge
21. The information was applicable to my future as a teacher for the reason that it
provided information on how having a strong base in social emotional
development it will benefit children.
22. I’m not going to be a teacher but my older sister is currently a 1st grade teacher.
This year she has 2 very disruptive kids and can benefit from the resources you
gave to us! 
23. Make sure the students you teach end up being a good person to all.
24. The pyramid
25. How to implement social competence in a classroom and its importance
93
26. I thought the “what can you do…” sections after each topic was very helpful.
27. I think that the information on ways to handle conflict in the classroom was
beneficial.
28. The area where children should be able to show aggression, like a “free space”.
29. Information about budget friendly social competence sites
30. Online books resources tools in the classroom to help
31. I really enjoyed all the information presented. I am going to be benefit from all as
a future teacher.
32. The connections and ideas to help with every aspects of the social aspects
33. The importance of social competency for children to be successful
34. The strategies & resources that were provided to help reinforce what we’ve
already learned
35. I think that the portion on the components of social competence and social
emotional skills are helpful
36. The resources
37. The information most important was the different roles that we can make a
difference.
38. The part of really getting to know your students and resources
39. Setting up peer groups. Putting children in groups to work together.
40. The information on resources
41. Friendship skills
42. What to do. Resources.
94
43. EQ is a better predictor of academic success than IQ
44. How to directly and indirectly work on conflict resolution. As well as factors that
influence peer status and peer rejection.
45. Handling social situations in a positive manner.
46. The information about aggression
47. The portions of the presentations titled: “what you can do”
48. Learning about aggression and peer relationships
49. How social competence directly affects academic success
50. The part on what I can personally do to improve how I reach about social
competence
51. I am interested in looking at some of your recommended websites.
52. I loved the resources
53. The different sources to use for classroom management
54. I like how you gave us so many resources to help us come up with ideas to teach
children.
55. I think all of the information provided will benefit me in the future
56. The significance of children’s social and emotional development
57. Learning how to handle aggression in a positive way
58. Thinking about how to help the students develop in a positive way
59. The material/resources for teachers
60. How to help children become more socially competent
95
61. The fact that teachers should be putting social skills as a regulation within their
curriculum
62. I think you had good tips of what teachers can look for and ways to teach social
and emotional competence
What information do you think was missing from the presentation that you think
should be included in future presentations?
1. Some parents might not be as positive about the “conflict or aggression”
reflections as you may think, consider that aggressive children may be the
products/victims of abuse. Knowing the family may guide you to not send that
home.
2. Maybe age ranges and types of appropriate development.
3. Change the slides that say What can you do to something different so that it does
not keep repeating like strategies.
4. More examples
5. More reading material if we seek for more knowledge base on the subject.
6. Information on the cultural differences that may affect children developing social
competency.
7. I think relating it more to an older group of children in the classroom.
8. Maybe SES of schools, negative side to it, it’s good and positive but I feel like it’s
too good to be true
9. Parental influence
96
10. I understood social competence; I’m just curious still what causes poor social
competence.
11. Cultural differences
12. More examples of key terms that were mentioned
13. Nothing, however I feel it kind of jumped around
14. Information about bullying
15. A lot of talking, maybe more interactiveness. Pictures were good but dragged a bit
near the end.
16. More Tucker the Turtle and puppy too.
17. Videos? Interactive discussion?
18. Examples-discuss topics little more
19. The slides are too hard to read, change the color
97
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