Development and Standardization of the Socio-Emotional Competence Scale for Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

The escalating need for socio-emotional competencies in the teaching profession highlighted the urgent need to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure these competencies. Moreover, pre-service teachers face demands: mastering classroom management, building positive student relationships, and modelling emotional skills, all while navigating the pressures of learning to teach. These demands necessitate a profession-specific assessment tool. Moreover, assessment of SEC in pre-service teachers will help guide teacher education curricula and professional development by highlighting specific training needs. This investigation presents a detailed SEC-Scale to measure various aspects of five core socio-emotional competencies, such as 1. Self-Awareness 2. Self-Management 3. Social Awareness 4. Relationship Management and 5. Responsible Decision-Making (CASEL, 2022). The scale development process includes a comprehensive procedure for item development based on existing literature and subject matter experts’ opinions, followed by a pilot test on 45 pre-service teachers for refining the items. The scale employed a detailed item analysis and construct validity through factor analysis. The scale is highly reliable, which is evidenced by Cronbach’s alpha of .958.  Factor Analysis supported CASEL’s SEL Framework competencies and identified five principal factors of socio-emotional competencies. This scale helps in the assessment of the SEC of pre-service teachers, which is very important to identify strengths and areas for growth early in their training, enabling targeted interventions before negative patterns become ingrained. Development of this scale offers a standardized method to assess socio-emotional competencies of pre-service teachers.