How Are You? Increasing Pre-Service Educators' Out-of-Class Communication with Social and Emotional Learning

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) can be embedded within professors’ teaching pedagogy to help support students’ mental well-being and create an inclusive learning environment. However, studies that explore implementing specific SEL strategies within higher education are extremely limited. To explore the potential benefits, the researcher and professor of this study engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), by evaluating the potential impact of a consistent SEL check-in at the start of each class session on the student-initiated out-of-class communication (OCC), attendance, and academic performance of undergraduate education majors pursuing a special education certification or minor. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from a control class session (n=12) and an intervention class session (n=12) to reveal that students not only thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from the SEL check-ins (100%), but also exhibited significantly higher levels of student-initiated out-of-class communication with the professor.