Term
Fall 2018
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAT
Facilitator(s)
Trish Harvey
Content Expert
Molly Harney
Abstract
The research question addressed in this project was, how can teachers scaffold development of the social-emotional functioning of preschoolers to improve their emotional health? To answer this question, the project included researching and developing ways to improve a child’s social-emotional awareness and character development to create a classroom culture where relationships are secure and children can thrive. This project reviewed studies from numerous experts in areas of social-emotional learning, early childhood curriculum development, executive functioning and character development to form the theoretical foundations to create a social-emotional learning and character development curriculum for children ages three to five. The research findings suggest a need for developmentally appropriate practices that integrate family involvement and teaching strategies to coach prosocial behaviors and cultivate emotional literacy, executive functioning skills and social problem-solving skills in children. To meet this aim, a teacher training guide, behavior management guide and a parent resource guide were developed to supplement the curriculum. Inspired by the work of Dereli-Iman, social-emotional functioning and character development are achieved by explicitly teaching the virtues of kindness, patience, respect and perseverance. The materials created for this project (including a 3-ft long puppet called “Dragonfly”) provide preschool educators new methods and materials to develop their students’ social-emotional learning and character development skills in playful and meaningful ways.
Project Type
Curriculum
Keywords
Curriculum, Early Childhood, Social-Emotional Learning, Character Development
Recommended Citation
Finn, Celeste, "Dragonfly’s Toolkit: An Innovative Curriculum Framework to Facilitate Socio-Emotional and Character Development Skills in Preschoolers" (2018). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 250.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/250
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects