SELMA - Social and Emotional Learning & Life Mastery in Early Childhood Education and Care

This is SELMA

Few assessments to study children's social and emotional development exist and this will be developed and piloted in the first phase of the project.

The framework plan for the kindergarten's content and tasks emphasizes respect, forgiveness, equality, diversity, community, democracy, solidarity, and social competence as central values. Letting children experience joy permeates the framework plan; centers shall contribute to children's well-being, joy, mastery, and self-worth. Children shall be supported in overcoming adversity and dealing with challenges. However, approaches for promoting children's development and experiences in these areas are only weekly described in the framework plan.

SELMA researchers and ECEC employees will collaborate to create working methods to promote children's social and emotional learning and development. Employees in ECEC have different backgrounds and there is a need for easily available resources to strengthen their common competence. A comprehensive online resource bank will be created to contribute to employees' competence. The resource bank will also contain suggestions and examples of play and activities for the children that can contribute to their social and emotional learning and development. The resources that are developed will then be tested in a large RCT-study with approximately 150 kindergartens. The project has many sub-goals, among other things related to implementation work, and the employees' own well-being. Collaborating partners in the project are Sandnes and KANVAS kindergartens. The project is run by researchers at the Center for Learning Environment and the UiS Business School and has a Scientific Advisory Board with highly competent and experienced National and International researchers. The project duration is from 2021 - 2025.