Do teachers promote social-emotional skills? The gap between statements and actual behavior

Social-emotional skills are vital for personal and academic growth in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous, and heterogenous world. Teachers play a key role in nurturing these skills in students. This study explores the alignment between self-reported social–emotional skills and actual behavior, focusing on the theory of ‘teachers as learners’. Using a mixed-method approach, this research analyzed self-report questionnaires and synchronous online meetings within a Teachers Professional Development program called ‘Fostering social–emotional skills in a diverse society’. Teachers were tasked with experiencing social-emotional skills by collaborating in heterogeneous groups to design programs for their students. Findings reveal a significant gap between self-reported and actual behavior. While teachers professed self-awareness, awareness of others, practical and emotional self-regulation, their reluctance to work in heterogeneous groups contradicted these claims. Most teachers preferred collaborating with familiar colleagues from the same school, exposing a lack of practical self-regulation and limited self-awareness. This study emphasizes the necessity for teachers to undergo an in-depth and ongoing process of personal development as ‘teachers as learners’ before effectively cultivating social and emotional skills in the classroom. It underscores the complexity of integrating these skills, emphasizing knowledge and tools but mostly experiential learning. It also advocates a shift toward assessing teachers’ behavior rather than relying solely on self-reports. Understanding the alignment between self-reported social-emotional skills and actual behavior is critical for effective teaching and fostering students’ social and emotional development in a rapidly changing educational landscape. This research provides valuable insights and calls for a more comprehensive, experiential approach to teacher training.