The attitudes of initial teacher education students towards teacher socioemotional competence

Abstract A significant acceptance and research of teacher socioemotional competence occurred along with the development of the constructivist approach in education. Socioemotional competence is considered an important part of teacher competences or pedagogical competences which should be acquired and learned during studies. The main research objective was to examine the attitudes of initial teacher education students (future teachers) related to the desirable and necessary teacher socioemotional competences, including self-assessment of students' socioemotional competences. The study involved a total of 121 graduate students attending teacher education study programs in the field of social sciences and humanities. The results of the research indicate that students are generally familiar with characteristics of socioemotional competence and consider them important. As expected, the students show having somewhat less confidence in their own teacher competences.


Introduction
Socioemotional competence is one of the main competences of a holistically developed individual. It is defined as a set of skills helping us to recognize our emotions and manage them, developing care for others, maintaining good relationships, making positive decisions, and dealing with difficult and challenging situations (The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2003). According to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2003), socioemotional competence refers to five domains: self-awareness, self-management, social sensitivity, managing relationships, and responsibility in making decisions. Based on these five domains and the existing insights into what competence is in general, it is clear that this is an extremely important topic in the context of teacher competences. Teacher competence refers to the high-level professional relevance, which is directly related to quality pedagogical education and training of teachers . Simply put, teacher competence is reflected in the use of the stimuli that the teacher finds in the environment and in her/his personal potential to achieve better developmental results, including seeing herself/himself as a person who has control over her/his pedagogical activities. The latter implies also relationships with students and parents as well as feeling good about her/his role as a teacher (Katz & McClellan, 1999). We can thus conclude that teacher pedagogical competence is crucial for quality education and, due to its complexity, it requires lifelong learning, training, and selfimprovement (Commission of the European Communities, 2000;Schonert-Reichl, 2017). Bearing in mind the above definition of socioemotional competence, we can say that teacher pedagogical competence is to a great extent related to teacher socioemotional competence, which is especially pronounced in modern teaching based on the constructivist approach which rejects the role of a teacher as a transmitter of the already prescribed educational content (Danielson, 2007;Hattie, 2003;Koludrovi c, 2013;Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, 2011). Socioemotional competence of teachers does not significantly differ from the general socioemotional competence. Yet, in all of the mentioned skills it stresses understanding students' emotional states and creating good relationships accordingly (Denham et al., 2012). Murphy et al. (2004) conducted research on students' opinion on the characteristics of a competent teacher and concluded that students highly value a teacher who does not shout, who is honest, caring, polite, patient, respects others, helps students, and manages the classroom well. Clearly, the characteristics of a good teacher as seen by the students in this research largely related specifically to the socioemotional competence, suggesting its importance in educational work.
In addition to student opinion, further proof of the importance of teacher socioemotional competence is its direct impact on students. Namely, a positive correlation was established between student success and teacher creativity, flexibility, and adaptability ( Simi c Sa si c & Sori c, 2009). Marzano et al. (2003) pointed out that teacher socioemotional competence more than the changes occurring at higher levels of administrative bodies is crucial to student achievement and the quality of the educational process. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that students do not notice the difference in formal teacher education but do notice and consider important the differences in classroom management, establishing good community relations, and similar teacher competences (Denham et al., 2012;Dorman, 2015;Simi c Sa si c & Sori c, 2009;Schonert-Reichl, 2017). This leads us to the question of how much the students, as future teachers, are aware of the importance of socioemotional competence in their teaching profession, whether they are familiar with this concept at all, how important they consider teacher socioemotional competence, and how they assess their own socioemotional competence.

Research objective and problems
Scientific and professional literature and practice indicate the importance of teacher socioemotional competence; therefore, the research objective was to examine the attitudes of students attending teacher education study programs (future teachers) related to desirable and necessary teacher socioemotional competences, including selfassessment of their own socioemotional competences.
The defined research objective led us to defining the following research problems: 1. to examine the assessment of the importance and the understanding of the concept of socioemotional competence comparing the responses of students attending dual teaching study programs, not including pedagogy as one of the programs, with the responses of pedagogy students, and 2. to compare how socially and emotionally competent the students consider themselves in relation to their general attitudes towards teacher socioemotional competence.

Research participants, instruments and course
In full compliance with ethical principles in social sciences, entirely voluntarily and anonymously, the research was conducted in groups during the summer semester of the academic year 2018/2019. It included a total of 121 first-and second-year students attending the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split. The total number of respondents included 27 male students (22%) and 94 female students (78%). The research sample was composed of graduate students, since only at the graduate level the students with the dual program in humanities and social studies are trained for teaching. Out of the total number of respondents, 82 (68%) were students with the dual program, not including pedagogy as one of the programs, and 39 of the respondents (32%) studied pedagogy in addition to another study program. Namely, one of the research interests was aimed at comparing the assessments of students attending teaching programs with a smaller number of courses related to the acquisition of teaching competences with the assessments of pedagogy students who, both on undergraduate and graduate levels, take most courses related to the acquisition of pedagogical competences.
In addition to the general data questionnaire, the study included some statements adopted according to the questionnaire for testing teacher socioemotional competence (Tom, 2012). This scale in the original examines the student-teacher relationship, emotional regulation, social awareness, and interpersonal relationships (Tom, 2012). For the purposes of this research, we selected and adopted a part of the statements from this scale which can offer us answers to the research problems. The statements were structured in such a way that they first tested the students' knowledge on and attitudes towards socioemotional competence of teachers in general (Cronbach Alpha ¼ 0.842), while in the second part of the questionnaire the students were asked to assess their own socioemotional competence (Cronbach Alpha ¼ 0,800). Here, the questions were coupled so as to require students' assessment and self-assessment related to the same statements.
In the first part of the research, we analyzed statements related to the assessment of desirable socioemotional competence of teachers in general. In the second part of the research, we used the t-test to examine and analyze differences in students' attitudes towards desirable teacher socioemotional competences in general regarding their self-assessment of the same dimensions of socioemotional competences.
As we were interested in whether students were at all familiar with the concept of socioemotional competence and whether they think that during their studies they acquired socioemotional competences, statements related to such issues were added to the research instrument. The participants responded to the statements using a Likert-type scale, where 1 indicated complete disagreement with the statement and 5 complete agreement with the statement. In addition to descriptive analysis, a number of t-tests were used to check the research problems.

Research results and discussion
In the first research problem, we analyzed how much the research participants were familiar with the concept of socioemotional competence and we analyzed the importance they attach to certain desirable teacher competences, which are related to socioemotional competence. Considering the fact that students are generally unaware of the differences in the formal education of their teachers (regardless of the educational level or program for acquiring pedagogical competencies), but do notice differences in the degree of socioemotional competence that can be seen in different aspects of teaching (Murphy et al., 2004) and the fact that in addition to modeling (implying socially and emotionally competent teacher behavior) both theoretical support and theoretical background are important (Haviland-Jones et al., 1999), we first explored how familiar students were with the concept of socioemotional competence in a way that they assessed the response to the statement I am familiar with the concept of socioemotional competence. It was reasonable to expect that the students who study pedagogy and attend one more study program are more familiar, if not more competent, in this area (M pedagogy students ¼ 4,70; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 3,91; t-test ¼ 4,197; p < 0,05; Figure 1).
In addition to personal predispositions, continuous self-improvement is important for socioemotional competence, including training, but also formally obtained education ( 2008; Schonert-Reichl, 2017). Therefore, the students were asked to assess their level of agreement with the statement During my studies I have acquired socioemotional competences necessary for the teaching profession ( Figure 2). Furthermore, bearing in mind that teacher socioemotional competence more than changes occurring at higher levels of administrative bodies influences student achievement and quality education (Marzano et al., 2003), we see how important it is to provide a comprehensive and holistic education to future teachers who are expected to be facilitators and critically reflective practitioners understanding and respecting the individual needs, interests and abilities of their students (Hattie, 2003;Kyriacou, 2001;Koludrovi c, 2013;The Teaching Council, 2017). Comparing the answers of the research participants related to the assessment of the acquired socioemotional competences, we can notice that 76,95% of pedagogy students consider they have acquired, or partially acquired, socioemotional skills during their studies. At the same time, 51,22% of students who do not study pedagogy consider that they have acquired the mentioned competences ( Figure 2). As expected, the t-test analysis results showed that there was statistically significant difference between pedagogy students and those attending dual teaching study programs (M pedagogy students ¼ 4,03; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 3,43; t-test ¼ 4,881; p < 0,05; Figure 2). The reason for this could be found in the insufficient inclusion of this topic in the study programs or in the (lack of) motivation for the teaching profession.
It was interesting to obtain the results of students' assessment of whether professional knowledge or socioemotional competences are more important for the teaching profession (For me socioemotional competence is more important than subject matter). The older, traditional imitative and reproductive paradigm of education (Pivac, 2010) places greater emphasis on the professional competences of teachers. On the other hand, the modern, constructivist creative and innovative paradigm (Koludrovi c, 2013;Pivac, 2010), in addition to the competence in the field of teaching, places significant emphasis on pedagogical competences, where the socioemotional component is important. It is ideal when the teacher is an expert in her/his field and highly socially and emotionally competent. In this context, particularly interesting results are shown in Figure 3 (M pedagogy students ¼ 3,48; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 3,10; t-test ¼ 1,995; p < 0,05), where we can see how pedagogy students are more inclined to prefer the importance of socioemotional competence over competence in the field of teaching, which may suggest that teaching methodologies of a particular subject are more in the focus of dual teaching study programs than in the programs attended by pedagogy students. In further research, it would be interesting to analyze the attitudes of university teachers towards the same issue and to check how much the attitudes of higher education teachers influence the attitudes of students.
Furthermore, we wanted to check whether students' self-assessments of socioemotional competence are only declarative, or they understand the importance of teacher socioemotional competence and the real role of teachers in the teaching process. Therefore, the students were asked to assess their level of agreement with statements related to characteristics of a quality teacher with developed socioemotional competences, who employs the constructivist approach to learning and teaching The respondents were first asked about the importance of establishing close relationships between teachers and students in a way that they assessed agreement with the statement A good teacher establishes a close relationship with his/her students (Figure 4). In the traditional didactics, i.e., traditional teaching, establishing close teacher-student relationships was not expected, the teachers being more focused on teaching the content prescribed by the program (Arbuni c & Kostovi c-Vranje s, 2007; Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, 2011;Pivac, 2010). On the other hand, more modern literature and didactics emphasize the importance of a quality teaching atmosphere that can be provided by a teacher with developed socioemotional competences (Bognar & Matijevi c, 2005;Koludrovi c, 2013;Kyriacou, 2001;Rei c Ercegovac et al., 2017). According to the results shown in Figure 4, we can see that the importance of establishing close teacher-student relationships is positively perceived by both groups of the research participants, although statistically significant difference was confirmed between the two analyzed groups (M pedagogy students ¼ 4,43; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 3,93; t-test ¼ 3,073; p < 0,05), whereby the students of pedagogy again expressed greater agreement with the statement. On the other hand, when the respondents were asked to assess the importance of creating a stimulating atmosphere in the classroom (Figure 5), students from both groups agreed with the above (M pedagogy students ¼ 4,75; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 4,69; t-test ¼ 0,492; p > 0,05). The possible reasons for this result may lie in the fact that students attending dual teaching study programs during their studies acquire learning outcomes in the learning and teaching environment in general. But students who are studying Pedagogy have more classes about partnership of teachers and students and consequently they understand the role of relationship between students and teachers better Recognizing one's own and others' emotions is an essential feature of socioemotional competence. Therefore, research participants were asked questions about these segments answering on the statement A good teacher is good in understanding how his students' feel. Encouraging are the results (Figure 6; M pedagogy students ¼ 4,55; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 4,39; t-test ¼ 1,210; p > 0,05) which show that most participants consider these important.
Contemporary didactics and pedagogy highly value the importance of students' individual needs, interests, and possibilities (Koludrovi c, 2013;Previ si c, 2007;Sekuli c-Majurec, 2005). It is emphasized that recognizing and appreciating students' emotions contribute to the quality of the atmosphere and can positively affect students' achievement or motivation to learn (Bear et al., 2005;Danielson, 2007;Kyriacou, 2001;Zins & Elias, 2007). Recognizing and appreciating students' emotional states leads to a reduction in students' undesirable behaviors in the long run.
Moreover, respondents were asked if the teacher's emotional expressions affect the students (A good teacher knows how his/her emotional expressions affect on students; Figure 7). Similar to previous statements, pedagogy students prove to be somewhat more confident in their assessments, although both groups agree with the above statement (M pedagogy students ¼ 4,67; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 4,46; t-test ¼ 1,745; p > 0,05). The results of previous research show that the motivation of teachers, their attitudes towards students and teaching do affect students' motivation and their understanding of the importance of the subject of teaching (Koludrovi c, 2013). Teaching is a joint process of students and teachers, therefore it is not surprising that the emotional state of the teacher, her/his respect for students, and the teacher's opinion and behavior in general affect the students, and that they are important for participants of this research.
Achieving a positive and stimulating teaching atmosphere is one of the most difficult tasks in modern teaching. Not until the last thirty years was this issue discussed or studied, but contemporary didactics pays special attention to the quality of the teaching atmosphere (Bognar & Matijevi c, 2005;Kyriacou, 2001). The characteristics of socioemotional competence also include a sovereign management of one's own emotions and behavior. Again, most participants agree with this statement A good  teacher manages to stay calm even when encountering bad behavior and student disobedience (Figure 8; M pedagogy students ¼ 4,33; M students attending dual teaching study programs ¼ 4,51; t-test ¼ À1,349; p > 0,05), which is very positive for the teaching profession.

The relationship between the assessment of socioemotional competences that students consider important in teaching and selfassessment of those competences
The second research problem compares the relationship between the assessment of socioemotional competences that students consider important in teaching and selfassessment of those competences. In this context, it is interesting to compare how students perceive the ideal teacher and her/his desirable traits in relation to how they self-assess those same traits, competences, and attitudes. It was expected that they would rate their competences worse than those of teachers due to the lack of experience. Moreover, some earlier research has shown that future teachers consider  themselves incompetent for teaching immediately after graduation (Joram & Gabriele, 1998;Richardson, 1996).
With the first statement, the students were asked how important it is to stay calm in situations when they feel upset. This statement can be linked with emotional selfregulation as one of the basic skills of socioemotional competence ( Simi c Sa si c & Sori c, 2009). According to the results shown in Figure 9, a high percentage of students believe that a good teacher manages to stay calm even when feeling upset, with 56.2% of students completely agreeing, and 34.71% partially agreeing with the statement. However, when it comes to their personal self-regulation, only 21.49% of the respondents completely agree that they manage to stay calm even when they feel justifiably upset (Figure 9). The same is confirmed with the t-test analysis which showed that students do not feel enough confident in their ability to be a teacher as they prefer (M general attitudes towards teacher competences ¼ 4,45; M student self-assesement ¼ .3,74; t-test ¼ 8,887; p < 0,05).
While the previous question referred to the regulation of one's own emotions and behavior in general, the following question, the answers to which are shown in Figure 9. The relationship between student assessment and self-assessment regarding self-regulation and self-control.
Source: The authors. Figure 10. The relationship between assessment and self-assessment regarding the statement that the teacher remains calm even when students are disobedient.
Source: The authors. Figure 10, referred to whether a good teacher should remain calm even when encountering student disobedience. As expected, students again assessed their ability somewhat lower than when assessing generally (M general attitudes towards teacher competences ¼ 4,28; M student self-assessment ¼ .3,78; t-test ¼ 6,541; p < 0,05). On the one hand, this is not unexpected due to the lack of experience in students, and on the other hand, the question remains as to whether a larger number of exercises in this area during their studies would stimulate students to regulate their behavior.
Moreover, teaching includes a partnership with parents. It was interesting to analyze students' views on this issue as well ( Figure 11). Certain authors point out that cooperation of the teacher with family and parents is one of the indicators of socioemotional competence of teachers, as well as a predictor for better school and academic success of students . It is interesting that the participants in this research showed a much higher percentage of willingness to cooperate with families than when they were asked about it in general (M general attitudes towards teacher competences ¼ 3,66; M student self-assessment ¼ .4,23; t-test ¼ À6,160; p < 0,05). It is possible that they are aware of the importance of this part of the educational process, but they implicitly assess that this cooperation in the real context has not yet been fully realized.
Furthermore, we analyzed student attitudes towards working in a multicultural environment that requires adaptation to the social situation as one of the main components of a socially and emotionally competent teacher (Jur ci c, 2014). The students believe that a good teacher pays attention to cultural sensitivity in the classroom, but at the same time only 31.4% of them completely agree with the statement that they want to work in a multicultural environment (M general attitudes towards teacher competences ¼ 4,58; M student self-assessment ¼ .3,78; t-test ¼ 8,203; p < 0,05). Further research could explore whether this is caused by a feeling of not being ready or something else. Assessment and self-assessment regarding the topic of multicultural work environment and sensitivity are shown in Figure 12.
Respect for individual differences is one of the bases of modern teaching. In this sense, tolerance and acceptance of individual differences among students can be challenging, and this is the attitude the students showed declaring that only 43.8% of Figure 11. The relationship between assessment and self-assessment related to maintaining good relationships with students' families.
Source: The authors. them see a class full of diversity, both individual and group ones, as something completely positive, and as many as 73.55% believe that a good teacher appreciates working in such an environment ( Figure 13; M general attitudes towards teacher competences ¼ 4,70; M student self-assesement ¼ .4,14; t-test ¼ 6,647; p < 0,05). Again, there is a gap between what students think a good teacher should do and what they expect themselves to do and think as teachers. It is possible that students are aware of the importance of individual differences, but during the studies that just do not have enough experience in this area. Also, during the demonstration lessons they do not know pupils enough, so they are not able to implement this in practice.

Conclusion
This research provided a broader picture of the importance and perception of socioemotional competence from the perspective of students attending initial teacher education study programs. In general, students recognize the importance of socioemotional competence and express attitudes that contribute to the quality of modern teaching.  As expected, pedagogy students are more confident in their answers because, due to the structure and scope of their undergraduate and graduate study programs, they have the opportunity to acquire more pedagogical competences. Moreover, it was shown that students recognize important elements of the role of a teacher related to socioemotional competence, which was examined in the second research problem. Yet, at the same time, the students are not sure of their own teaching competence. In essence, such a result may suggest that students are aware that with the completion of their studies their job as teachers only begins, and that becoming a quality teacher requires experience and lifelong learning. Finally, it seems important to provide not only theoretical support to students in this area but also support in the form of exercises during their studies. In other words, further research should examine how longterm practice during studies contributes to students' preparedness for teaching.
This research examined only some student (self-)assessments of the importance of teacher socioemotional competence. Future research should explore this concept more systematically. The results of this research are important because they indicate that a longer and more systematic acquisition of pedagogical (socioemotional) competences contributes to broadening the students' knowledge related both to teachers' job duties and the concept of socioemotional competence in general. A deeper understanding of socioemotional competence could ultimately reduce the stress that teachers experience at the beginning of their career.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.