Socioemotional competences of primary school teachers: Differences between whole-class and subject teachers

Abstract

Scientific evidence shows that teachers’ socioemotional competences are an important factor for fostering students’ competences through the learning process. Five competences are specially connected to teachers’ success in the classroom: self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, social awareness and responsible decision making. Aim of this research is examining differences in socioemotional competences between whole-class and subject teachers. Secondary, relationship of teachers’ socioemotional competences with gender, age, and years of working in education will be investigated. Additionally, relation of fear of COVID-19 and teachers’ socioemotional competences will be investigated. Research sample consisted of 817 teachers (15.2% male) from elementary schools in Serbia, age from 23 to 64 (M = 45.56, SD =9.35). Teacher social and emotional competences were assessed by Self-Assessing Social and Emotional Instruction and Competencies: A Tool for Teachers (American Institutes for Research) (Yoder, 2014). Scale FCV-19S (Ahorsu et al., 2020) was used to measure level of primary school teachers’ fear of COVID-19. Data was collected online from February to April 2021. Differences between group of whole-class teachers and subject teachers were obtained by MANCOVA. Research results show that whole-class teachers were more competent than subject teachers in self-awareness (F=4.922; p<.05), self-management (F=6.995; p<.05) and relationship skills (F=10.418; p<.05), whilst no differences were found regarding social awareness and responsible decision making. Gender, age, and years of working in education, was not related to any of primary school teachers’ socioemotional competence. Fear of COVID-19 was not related to teachers’ socioemotional competences. Research results were interpreted in the relation to various factors that differ whole-class from subject teachers (e.g. pedagogical aspects of preservice education, organization of teaching process, professional development, etc.).