Directions in the Professional Development of Teachers for Enhancing Socio-Emotional Growth and Social Life in the School Environment

The present article presents a constative study that focuses on the socio-emotional development and social life in the school environment of children and the directions of professional training for teachers to build them. The main method used in conducting the study was the questionnaire-based survey. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire, distributed online via the Google Forms platform. The collected data was entered and processed using the statistical analysis software PSPP. Before analysis, data cleaning was performed to identify and eliminate incomplete responses or data entry errors. The population under investigation consisted of teachers employed in pre-university education, working in public educational institutions from both urban and rural areas. The sample was a non-probabilistic, convenience sample, including only those subjects who were available to participate in completing the questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to a total of 325 subjects, of which only 173 responded. The purpose of the study was to identify the main components of socio-emotional development that, in the opinion of the teaching staff, influence the development of children's and students' social life in school. The conclusions of the study show that the field of socio-emotional development is of interest to teachers. They consider that empathy, social and relational skills and emotional self-regulation are the main components of socio-emotional development that most significantly influence the socio-emotional growth of children and students.