社會情緒學習融入雙語教學的師培課程「教育心理學（雙語教學）」之初探

The Exploratory Study of Bilingual Teacher Education Course “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching)” With Social and Emotional Learning Embedded

本研究採行動研究方式，將社會情緒學習（Social and Emotional Learning , SEL）融入研究者開設的「教育心理學（雙語教學）」師培課程，以提升學生的SEL素養（competencies），並探討學生對該行動教學方案的其他學習體悟，同時反思教學者的教學實踐。本研究蒐集學生量化與質性的資料，包括「SEL素養量表」前後測（43位）、焦點團體（18位）、期中（36位）與期末（51位）個人SEL省思單，並透過前、中、後期辦理的專家學者焦點團體，輔以教師課後反思筆記，結合多方資料作為調整該行動教學方案實施之參照。本研究發現，就量化結果，學生在接受該行動教學方案後，整體的SEL素養未達顯著提升，但對個人長處的覺察，有顯著提升。就質性結果，綜觀焦點團體與個人SEL省思單的資料分析顯示，學生的SEL素養表現有所提升，例如情緒覺察能力提升、團隊協作能力增加，且其對該行動教學方案大多抱持著正向的學習體悟，如覺察到雙語課程未如想像中可怕。本研究結果可供教學者進行教學實踐的反省，並供研究者或其他師培教師進行後續相關行動教學方案的修正參酌。

Motivation and Purpose

“Bilingualizing” the Teacher Education Program (TEP) is the trend that the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has actively promoted recently. The researcher of this study has taught the course “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching)” in TEP at a Taiwanese national university for more than three years, noticing that the English level of pre-service teachers in this course was quite different, thereby their participation in this class was also various. Based on this, with the approach of action research, the aim of this study was to embed the social and emotional learning (SEL), which is beneficial for people’s psychosocial adjustments, in the “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching)”, to promote pre-service teachers’ SEL competencies and explore their other perceptions of this action research teaching project, as well as reflect on the instructor’s teaching practice.

Basically, bilingual teaching and SEL were embedded in the classroom activities of the course “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching)”. In this course, “translanguaging” (The Language Training & Testing Center, 2021) was adopted in bilingual teaching. Prior research showed that “code switching” was useful for students to learn the domain-specific knowledge (Cheng & Wang, 2022; Tsou, 2020). In this way, both teachers and students’ SEL competencies would be promoted (Suganda et al., 2021).

To date, there is scant literature about how to combine SEL and bilingual TEP. However, there are some literatures about the integration of SEL and bilingual teaching or English learning. For example, cultivating students’ SEL competencies through diverse classroom activities of English learning, such as group task, pair practice, peer discussion, and problem solving, etc. (Badia van Pelt, 2020; Ganasan et al., 2022; Suganda et al., 2021).

In terms of the integration of SEL and the TEP, the related research is relatively obscure (Katz et al., 2020). Limited studies indicated that pre-service teachers’ SEL competencies could be improved by self-reflecting own teaching philosophy and sharing with peers in oral or written ways. Moreover, pre-service teachers practiced to set goals and make plans to reach the goals in the classroom activities. They learned to be aware of others’ thoughts and feelings in team works as well (Melnick & Martinez, 2019).

Both SEL and bilingual teaching are the main tendencies emphasized in current Taiwanese educational field. They share the similarities of the characteristics of instruction (Ee & Cheng, 2013). For instance, both of them value student-centered instruction, active learning, discussion and reflection, as well as cooperative learning, etc. (Tuyan & Sadik, 2008; Waajid et al., 2013). When it comes to embedding SEL and bilingual teaching in the TEP, the above characteristics of instruction would be helpful for pre-service teachers’ social and emotional adjustments during the learning process.

Build on the above, the purposes of this study were as follows.

1. Investigating the performance of SEL competencies of students who participated in the action research teaching project “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching) with SEL embedded”.

2. Investigating other learning perceptions of students who participated in the action research teaching project “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching) with SEL embedded”.

3. Self-reflecting the teaching practice of the instructor.

Literature Review

According to the SEL framework the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2020) proposed, there are five competencies of SEL: self-awareness (e.g., being aware of own thoughts, feelings, strengths, weakness and self-efficacy), self-management (e.g., emotion regulation, stress management, discipline, goal setting and making plans), social awareness (e.g., perspective taking, empathy and sympathy, respecting others, understanding how environments influence individuals’ behaviors), relationship skills (e.g., building and maintaining relationships, interpersonal communication and conflict coping, team work), and responsible decision-making (e.g., identifying problems, analyzing resources, evaluating consequences, problem solving and decision making). SEL can be seen as the general concept of wellness (Merrell & Gueldner, 2010).

SEL was found positively linked to people’s learning motive, learning outcomes and positive peer relations (Oberle & Schonert-Reichl, 2017; Taylor et al., 2017). For pre-service teachers, SEL is associated with their mental health (Bedel, 2014) and learning status (Swanson et al., 2019) in the TEP. It is also related to their instruction and student counseling in the future (Katz et al., 2020). Thus, SEL is imperative for pre-service teachers (Corcoran & O’Flaherty, 2022).

Methodology

The participants of this study were pre-service teachers who enrolled in the course “Educational Psychology (Bilingual Teaching)” the researcher taught in 2023.

To tackle the three research purposes of this study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The measures in this study consisted of the pre-post-test of the SEL competencies scale with five subscales Huang (2023) developed (43 participants), the focus groups with five open-ended questions (18 participants), the SEL reflection sheets with five open-ended questions in Midterm (36 participants) and Final (51 participants) respectively. In addition, information collected from the focus groups of the scholars in the beginning, middle and the end of the semester, as well as the reflection note of the instructor/researcher, also served as the reference for the adjustments of the action research teaching project in the present study. Furthermore, based on the qualitative data collected in this study, the instructor reflected on own teaching practice.

Results and Discussion

Regarding the research results of quantitative analyses, the research findings indicated that there were no significant differences in the pre-post-test of pre-service teachers’ general SEL competencies and the five dimensions of SEL competencies. Yet, there was the significant difference in the pre-post-test of their awareness of self-strength, which was good for young adults’ psychosocial adjustments and learning involvement (Dolev-Amit et al., 2021).

According to the research results of qualitative analyses of the focus group interviews and the SEL reflection sheets, pre-service teachers’ performance of SEL competencies was improved, such as the increase of their self-emotion awareness and the increase of the ability of group cooperation. It reflects the tendency that interpersonal relationship is emphasized in the Eastern culture (Hecht & Shin, 2015). What is more, most participants tended to hold positive attitudes towards the action research teaching project in the study. For example, they realized the bilingual teaching course was not so horrible as expected. Finally, the above research findings were the references for the instructor to reflect on own teaching practice.

Conclusion and Recommendations

What this study found provided some implications for the researcher or other teachers in the TEP to further modify the relevant action research teaching project. Here are some recommendations for future studies:

1. Cultivating pre-service teachers’ SEL competencies within an independent course.

2. Cultivating pre-service teachers’ various SEL competencies through classroom activities in the bilingual TEP.

3. The time of classroom activities in the bilingual TEP with SEL embedded might be extended.

4. The reflection note of the instructor could be further examined.

5. Adjusting the teaching methods and the measurements of the SEL competencies.