Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education

Advisor

Ashley Russom

Committee Member

Jamie Leeder

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Committee Member

Dana Mills

Keywords

positive relations, self-efficacy, self-management, social awareness, social cognitive theory, social emotional learning

Abstract

By performing a quantitative research study, this applied dissertation was designed to ascertain the difference between students’ self-efficacy who have been exposed to a curriculum that integrated social emotional learning (SEL) skills and those students who have not. Bandura’s social cognitive theory was used as the theoretical framework to demonstrate how SEL increases self-efficacy and motivation, which increases academic success. At the time of the study, one school (control school) was not implementing a SEL skills curriculum, while the other school (experimental school) was integrating Personalization for Academic and Social Emotional Learning (PASL), a social emotional learning strategy curriculum into the classroom. This study utilized 1007 junior students and forty-one teachers from these two different schools. Using the Likert scale, the subjects were asked to complete thirty survey questions based on five core social emotional learning competencies: social awareness, self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

An analysis of the data revealed positive outcomes on all five core social emotional learning skill competencies for those students who were exposed to a curriculum that incorporated SEL strategies, as opposed to those who were not exposed. This indicates that those students who possess social emotional learning skills have a greater self-efficacy, which can correlate to positive success in and out of the school system, which leads to successful and productive community members.

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