Teaching who you are: Preliminary findings linking teachers’ and students’ social-emotional skills

Despite recent emphasis of accomplished scholars on the significant role of teachers' social-emotional skills in imparting these skills to their students, there is limited empirical research on this issue. The present study addressed this gap by examining the associations between teachers’ social-emotional skills (mindfulness, empathy, and prosocial orientation) and their students' social-emotional skills. We surveyed 45 primary classroom teachers (all teachers were women) and their 852 fourth- and fifth-grade students (54 % girls), from 12 public schools in Israel (serving students from SES ranging from the third to the eighth decile). All the study's participants completed self-report measures of their social-emotional skills. HLM analyses indicated that teachers' mindfulness was associated with students' social-emotional skills (mindfulness, empathic concern, and prosocial orientation), and teachers' empathic concern was associated with students' prosocial orientation. These findings provide initial support for the potential significance of teachers' social-emotional skills, particularly mindfulness and empathy, in scaffolding these skills in their students. Implications for teachers' training and professional development in contemporary education are discussed. Impact Statement: Researchers have argued that teachers’ social-emotional (SE) skills are important for their capacity to impart these skills to their students. However, this claim has rarely been empirically examined. Here, we examined links between teachers’ self-reported SE skills (mindfulness, empathy, and prosocial orientation) and their students’ self-reports about these skills. We surveyed 45 homeroom teachers and their 852 students. We found links between teachers' mindfulness and students' SE skills (mindfulness, empathic concern, and prosocial orientation), and between teachers' empathic concern and students' prosocial orientation. These findings suggest the importance of teachers' mindfulness and empathy for their students’ SE development.