Developing and Validating a Social and Emotional Competencies (SEC) Scale for Iranian EFL Teachers
Keywords:
EFL teachers, social and emotional competencies, social and emotional learning, scale validation, foreign language educationAbstract
Introduction and Aim: Due to the increasing complexity of educational environments and the critical role of social-emotional interactions in teaching effectiveness, social and emotional competencies have become essential for EFL teachers. The present study aimed to develop and validate a localized Social and Emotional Competencies (SEC) scale specifically designed for Iranian EFL teachers.
Methodology: This study employed a grounded theory design. The participants consisted of 250 Iranian EFL teachers from different universities who were selected through convenience sampling. The qualitative findings of a previous study were used as the basis for generating the scale items through selective coding. The final instrument consisted of 33 five-point Likert-scale items. To evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis, KMO measure of sampling adequacy, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted using SPSS and AMOS software.
Findings: The results of exploratory factor analysis confirmed a four-factor structure consisting of Self-Awareness Competence, Self-Management Competence, Social Awareness Competence, and Decision-Making Competence, accounting for 56.75% of the total variance. The KMO index was 0.967 and Bartlett’s test was statistically significant, confirming the adequacy of the data for factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients demonstrated high internal consistency for the overall scale (α = .956) and for all subscales (ranging from .831 to .933). Confirmatory factor analysis further supported the excellent fit of the four-factor model, with fit indices such as RMSEA = .001, CFI = .999, and GFI = .931 indicating strong construct validity. Moreover, all factor loadings were statistically significant and exceeded the acceptable threshold of .50.
Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that Iranian EFL teachers’ social and emotional competencies constitute a multidimensional construct encompassing self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and decision-making competencies. The developed SEC scale exhibited strong reliability and validity and can therefore serve as a reliable instrument for assessing and enhancing teachers’ social and emotional competencies in educational practice, teacher training, and policy-making contexts.
Downloads
References
Al-Matari, A. S., Almoqbali, M. A., & Almaawali, I. M. (2022). Teachers' perceptions of social and emotional learning competencies in the schools of the second episode of basic education in Oman. International Conference on Research and Development (Icorad), https://doi.org/10.47841/icorad.v1i1.23
Aldrup, K., Carstensen, B., Koeller, M., & Klusmann, U. (2020). Measuring teachers' social-emotional competence: Development and validation of a Situational Judgment test. Frontiers in psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00892
Alzobiani, I. (2020). The qualities of effective teachers as perceived by Saudi EFL students and teachers. English Language Teaching, 13(2), 32-47. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v13n2p32
Ashrafian, M., & Alimohammadi, N. (2025). Exploring EFL teachers' perception of professional development needs in post-COVID era: Does gender make any difference? Journal of New Trends in English Language Learning, 3(5), 141-158. https://doi.org/10.71528/2024.1194612
Bailey, J., & Weiner, R. (2022). Interpreting social-emotional learning: How school leaders make sense of SEL skills for themselves and others. School Leadership Review, 16(2). https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/slr/vol16/iss2/4
Bakare, B. M. (2015). Students' adversity quotients and related factors as predictors of academic achievement in the West African senior school certificate examination in Southwestern Nigeria https://www.peaklearning.com/documents/PEAK_GRI_bakare2.pdf
Baskin, J. (2022). Understanding the role of educator: Leveraging social-emotional learning in service of equity and inclusion in K-12 public schools Lesley University].
Black, D. L. (2022). Essentials of social and emotional learning: The complete guide for schools and practitioners (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Clayton, V. (2017). The psychological approach to educating kids. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/the-social-emotional-learning-effect/521220
Collaborative for Academic, S., & Emotional, L. (2022). Core SEL competencies. https://casel.org/core-competencies/
Collie, R. J., & Perry, N. E. (2019). Cultivating teacher thriving through social-emotional competence and its development. Australian Educational Researcher, 46(4), 699-714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00342-2
Colvin, R. (2017). Supporting the whole teacher. https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/content/uploads/2018/01/SupportingWholeTeacherUpdate.pdf
Dusenbury, L., & Weissberg, R. P. (2018). Emerging insights from states' efforts to strengthen social and emotional learning. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED586404.pdf
Dyson, B., Shen, Y., Howley, D., & Baek, S. (2023). Social emotional learning matters: Interpreting educators' perspectives at a high-needs rural elementary school. Frontiers in Education, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1100667
Esen-Aygun, H., & Sahin-Taskin, C. (2017). Teachers' views of social-emotional skills and their perspectives on social-emotional learning programs. Journal of Education and Practice, 8, 205-215.
Fatehi Rad, N., & Atashdast, M. (2023). Investigating the effect of input-based and output based instruction through divergent and convergent tasks on Iranian EFL learners' learning English idioms. Journal of English Language and literature Teaching, 2(1), 15-26.
Hamilton, L. S., & Doss, C. J. (2021). Supports for social and emotional learning in American schools and classrooms: Findings from the American Teacher Panel (RR-A397-1). https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA397-1.htm
Hess, R. (2020). Some advice for champions of social and emotional learning. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/education/opinion-some-advice-for-champions-of-social-and-emotional-learning/2017/12
Jones, K., & Cater, M. (2020). An investigation of principals' social and emotional learning beliefs and attitudes. The Qualitative Report, 25(9), 3204-3223. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.3575
Jones, S., & Doolittle, E. (2017). Social and emotional learning: Introducing the issue. The Future of Children, 27(1), 3-11. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57df71061b631b2a7870cb9e/t/5ab1c38570a6ad5d2735d4d8/1521599373395/SEL_Introducing+the+issue.pdf
Koenen, A., Vervoort, E., Kelchtermans, G., Verschueren, K., & Spilt, J. L. (2018). Teacher sensitivity in interaction with individual students: The role of teachers' daily negative emotions. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 34(4), 514-529. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2018.1553876
Labouvie-Vief, G. (2015). Integrating emotions and cognition throughout the lifespan. Springer International Publishing.
Li, Z. (2021). Teacher well-being in EFL/ESL classrooms. Frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.732412
Marashi, H., & Naghibi, Z. (2020). Adversity quotient and classroom management among Iranian EFL teachers: An analysis of personality styles. Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies, 3(1), 12-23. https://doi.org/10.30479/jmrels.2020.11880.1473
Mousazadeh, S., Fatehi Rad, N., & Jalali. (2026). Exploring the components of social and emotional competencies (SEC) for Iranian EFL teachers: Teachers' perceptions in focus. International Journal of Education and Cognitive Sciences, 7(3).
O'Conner, R., De Feyer, J., Carr, A., Luo, J. L., & Romm, H. (2017a). A review of the literature on social and emotional learning for students ages 3-8: Characteristics of effective social and emotional learning programs (REL 2017-245, Issue. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED572721.pdf
O'Conner, R., De Feyer, J., Carr, A., Luo, J. L., & Romm, H. (2017b). A review of the literature on social and emotional learning for students ages 3-8: Implementation strategies and state and district support policies (REL 2017-246, Issue. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED572722
Rayani, E., & Fatehi Rad, N. (2023). A qualitative assessment of supervisors' views towards examiners' perceptions: Fair justice or not? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 11(4), 161-168.
Raz, S., & Zysberg, L. (2014). Emotional intelligence: Current evidence from psychophysiological, educational and organizational perspectives. Nova Science Publishers.
Renandya, W. A., & Jacobs, G. M. (2021). What makes a good language teacher in a changing world? Journal of English Language and Linguistics, 2(2), 1-16. https://willyrenandya.com/what-makes-a-good-language-teacher-in-a-changing-world/
Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (2017). Social and emotional learning and teachers. The Future of Children, 27(1), 137-155. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2017.0007
Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (2019). Advancements in the landscape of social and emotional learning and emerging topics on the horizon. Educational Psychologist, 54(3), 222-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1633925
Shen, B., McCaughtry, N., Martin, J. J., Garn, A. C., Kulik, N., & Fahlman, M. M. (2015). The relationship between teacher burnout and student motivation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(4), 519-532. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12089
Soutter, M. (2023). Social-emotional learning for teachers. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 17(1), 7-30. https://doi.org/10.22329/jtl.v17i1.7001
Wright, P. M., Gray, S., & Richards, K. A. R. (2020). Understanding the interpretation and implementation of social and emotional learning in physical education. The Curriculum Journal, 23(1), 67-86. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.85
Downloads
Published
Submitted
Revised
Accepted
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sima Mousazadeh (Author); Neda Fatehi Rad; Valeh Jalali (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
