Identifying Social-Emotional Learning Skills in Turkish Language Curriculum

Language skills are essential for individuals to communicate with other people and express themselves orally and in written by adapting themselves to the environment they are in. They are also related to social-emotional skills. Developing individuals’ social-emotional skills positively influences their cognitive and language development as well as their social life and emotional world. Accordingly, involving social-emotional skills within the scope of Turkish course in primary education has an important role in supporting language development as well as social-emotional skills. However, there are a limited number of studies focusing on the relationship between social-emotional learning skills and language skills in our country. In this study, the special aims, themes and acquisitions of the Turkish course curriculum were examined in terms of covering social-emotional learning skills. The evaluation of the Turkish course curriculum in terms of social-emotional learning elements is important in terms of understanding to what extent the Turkish course provides an opportunity for the mutual development of social-emotional and language skills. In this study, CASEL s definition of social-emotional learning was taken into consideration. In this direction, self-awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship building and decision-making skills were taken into account. In this study, special aims, themes and learning outcomes of the Turkish curriculum were examined in terms of social-emotional learning skills. The sase study design is utilized in this research. Research data were obtained through document analysis. Deductive content analysis was administered in order to analyze the data. Findings of this research revealed that special aims, themes and learning outcomes of the Turkish curriculum can be associated with social-emotional learning skills. However, considering these findings, the researchers suggest that the Turkish course curriculum needs to be restructured in a more comprehensive way to develop students’ language and social-emotional skills effectively.