Measuring Social-Emotional Teaching Practices in Chinese Preschools: A New Scale Development and Validation

Research has consistently shown that teachers’ teaching practices can significantly influence children’s social-emotional learning (SEL). However, there has been a notable oversight regarding the need for a practical framework to assess preschool teachers’ effectiveness in this area. The present study developed and validated a social-emotional learning teaching scale (T-SEL) with 1677 preschool teachers. Items were derived from the literature, teachers’ interviews, and experts’ reviews, following the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework. Study 1 ( N = 377) confirmed a five-factor structure, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Study 2 ( N = 700) established concurrent validity by correlating the T-SEL with teachers’ SEL beliefs. Study 3 ( N = 1300) tested measurement invariance across the teacher variables. Overall, the findings support T-SEL’s reliability and utility in assessing teaching practices, underscoring the need for further research on promoting children’s SEL.