Exploring the Impact of Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) through Children’s Literature

This study explores the impact of integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into teacher training programs through children’s literature on the knowledge and attitudes of preservice teachers towards SEL. The research involved creating SEL-themed tote bags, developing lesson plans, and participating in an SEL book reading session to prepare future PreK-4 teachers to nurture essential SEL competencies for academic success. The research used convenience sampling to select undergraduate students in Early Childhood and Elementary Education courses for interviews. The findings provide valuable insights into how preservice teachers’ knowledge and attitudes shift towards the implementation of SEL activities in their future classrooms.