Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating the Social Emotional Learning Professional Development Program

In this study, a Social Emotional Learning Professional Development Program (SEL-PDP) was designed for teachers. The program was structured as a 40-hour training process, incorporating practice-based workshops and an in-class application sharing day. Implemented in the 2023-2024 academic year, the program involved 12 primary and preschool teachers working in Istanbul, Türkiye. A nested mixed-methods design was employed, and qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed to evaluate the program. A pre-test and post-test design was utilized to assess cognitive gains, with data analyzed via the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, revealing a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores (Z = -3.059, p < 0.01). Additionally, an average increase of 66% was recorded in participants' total percentage success scores. The findings indicated that the methods teachers intended to implement in their classrooms were related to the practices conducted in the workshops. During the sharing day, it was observed that the methods applied by teachers in their classrooms bore similarities to those presented during the workshops. Descriptive analysis of the 18-item SEL-PDP Evaluation Form demonstrated that the average item scores fell within the highest range of 4.21–5.00 ("Strongly Agree"). These results suggest that SEL-PDP was evaluated by participant teachers as an effective, practice-based, and goal-oriented professional development program.