Date

8-29-2025

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Amy Schechter

Keywords

Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), Alpha School District (ASD), Beta High School (BHS), Certified Mathematics Teacher (CMT), Certified School Counselor (CSC), Certified Social Worker (CSW), Check for Understanding (CFU), Classroom Engagement Inventory (CEI), Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Delta High School (DHS), Demonstration of Learning (DOL), Early Childhood Education (ECE), Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning (EASEL), Emotional Intelligence (EI), Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Gamma High School (GHS), Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR), Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Lambda High School (LHS), Kappa High School (KHS), Most Effective SEL Intervention (MESI), New Biafra State (NBS), No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Office Discipline Referral (ODR), Out of School Time (OST), Out of School Suspensions (OSS), Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS), Professional Learning Community (PLC), Social and Character Development Research Consortium (SCDR), Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (T-SEL)

Disciplines

Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this multiple-case study was to understand educators' perceptions of the influence of social-emotional learning interventions on students' engagement in high school mathematics in the Alpha School District in the United States. The guiding theory used was Albert Bandura's social learning theory. This theory plays a crucial role in highlighting teachers' classroom activities that elicit observable behavioral changes in learners, which are critical to instruction, learning, and performance. The central research question was: What is educator perception of social-emotional learning interventions in high school mathematics? I conducted the study in four high schools that fully implemented SEL intervention programs in the past three years. The sample included 12 educators directly involved in students' positive behavior change intervention programs. I adopted three data sources: a semi-structured data collection protocol using personal interviews and focus group discussions administered to mathematics teachers, school counselors, and social workers. The third data source was direct classroom observations of three selected mathematics classrooms. Data collected was categorized and coded into prefigured and emergent themes for triangulation. The analyzed data generated four themes: student-centered classroom engagement, competence as the desired outcome, autonomy as self-directed decision-making, and relatedness to the school community in high school mathematics.

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