Training early childhood teachers to support children’s social and emotional learning: A preliminary evaluation of roundies program

Abstract

(1) Background: Implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in Early Childhood Education (ECE) settings is a promising approach that can strengthen overall development and well-being during childhood and into adolescence and adulthood. This study de-scribed the development, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of a universal SEL program, i.e., Roundies, in the Finnish ECE context to address the need for professional development op-portunities. (2) Methods: The Roundies program was a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with intervention and control design. A total of 194 children were assigned to either the intervention group (n = 136) or control group (n = 58) (MAGE = 60.35 months at pre-test; 48% boys). Teachers rated the children’s behaviors using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at the pre-and post-test. (3) Results: Feedback collected by teachers on the program suggested that teachers were highly satisfied with the overall program and the components. Multilevel models showed signifi-cantly increased prosocial behaviors and reduced SDQ total difficulties in the intervention group compared to the control group. (4) Conclusions: These preliminary findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of the Roundies program in improving teachers’ capacity to support early SEL.