Kellie Bartnick¹, Kimberly Wilson^1,

The purpose of this research study was to experimentally consider how implementing an explicitly taught social-emotional curriculum would affect student self-regulation and academic performance. The participants in the study were four teachers (two primary and two aides) and 38 students (14 female and 24 male, age 5-6) from two kindergarten classes from a large urban district. One Kindergarten class was chosen at random to receive the social-emotional curriculum over an 8-week period. The other class did not receive the curriculum, acting as the control group. Measures of self-regulation and academic achievement in literacy and numeracy were administered at pre- and post-assessment. Findings indicate that self-regulation skills are correlated, at a statistically significant level, with early literacy and numeracy academic achievement. These findings support the claim that emotional intelligence and the ability to self-regulate is tied to positive developmental outcomes, including academic engagement and performance, which facilitates learning.

self-regulation, school performance, executive function, academic achievement, literacy, numeracy