An investigation of Turkish elementary social studies textbooks in terms of social emotional learning

Social emotional learning (SEL) is very important to the well-being of students and their academic achievement in school. The purpose of this study was to search any relation between social studies text books and social emotional learning. This study was conducted as a qualitative study. 9 SSTBs were investigated by 21 fourth grade pre-service teachers from Faulty of Elementary Education in the last semester from Sinop Education Faculty in Turkey. University students have common knowledge that SSTB contains SEL content. Physical feature, content and applicability are the three main themes found in this study. The research method has high validity and reliability. Future studies should be conducted on the intensity, number of activity and distribution of skills of SEL in SSTB. Do the activities in SSTB affect SEL of students? How do the teachers teach the activities of SEL? Besides teachers’ teaching strategies, how parents and peers at home and school are occupied with SSTB’ activities on SEL are the other issues that should be born in mind in future studies.


INTRODUCTION
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all, as Aristotle declared that education, teaching and learning is an emotional process a great deal.Without affiliation between school, teacher, instructional material and student, there is apparently going to be big troubles.Social emotional learning (SEL) seems to be the core for all problems which arise from emotional gap in educational process.
SEL focuses on emotion and knows duties and responsibilities.This umbrella term is not easy to explain with many words.SEL is defined as the series process of gaining knowledge, skills, attitudes, abilities and beliefs to identify and manage emotions, caring about others, making good decisions, behaving ethically and responsibly (moral aspects of behaving), developing favorable inter relations and setting up interaction with others, and avoiding undesired behaviors.SEL is directly related to academic achievement that is why skills requiring classroom success are applied in social situations such as school, family, work life or any place that human beings take part in (Elieas and Moceri, 2012: 424).
The fundamentals of SEL depend on Goleman"s (1995) emotional intelligence book (Elias and Moceri, 2012;Elias, 2004;Elias et al., 1997;Vadeboncoeur and Collie, 2013;Poulou, 2007).Moreover, the known fundamentals of SEL used by Salovey and Mayer (1990) arose from past background, even if more past studies such as assertiveness (Alberti and Emmons, 1998;Deluty, 1981), self-esteem (Harter, 1983), and friendship formation (Hartup, 1984) are assumptions of SEL structures.Khun (2016) starts SEL studies from very old times.According to her, the background of SEL roots from ancient Greeks especially Plato.In the 1960s, James Comer in 1980s, Roger Wissberg and Timothy Shriver are the key people in SEL.From the 1990s, Daniel Goleman"s Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2016) studies are the pioneers in SEL studies.
SEL is very important to the well-being of students and their academic achievement in school.So social emotional learning is a very important concept.In the United States or European countries and Australia, SEL has been conducted via a wide range of packed programs.In Turkey, there are lacks of programs centered on SEL.The aim of this study was to search any SSTB and SEL.The basic research question was, Is there relation between Turkish elementary social studies text books and social emotional learning?This study was conducted as a qualitative study.9 SSTBs were investigated by 21 fourth grade pre-service teachers from Faulty of Elementary Education in the last semester from Sinop Education Faculty, Turkey.The working group of this qualitative study is selected from Sinop Education Faculty 2015 to 2016 Spring Semester fourth grade students.
There are two main parts in SEL: emotional education and social education.SEL combines these two different and distinct concepts.Social and emotional education (Cefai and Cooper, 2009) is defined as the educational process by which an individual develops intrapersonal and interpersonal competence and resilience skills in social, emotional and academic domains through curricular, embedded, relational and contextual approaches.
CASEL is a working organization of social emotional learning in scholarly life, whose philosophical foundations depend on Goleman"s works (Goleman, 1995(Goleman, , 1998)).SEL promotes mental health and academic success in the classroom (Merrell and Gueldner, 2010: xii).SEL is the process through which children and adults acquire and apply knowledge effectively, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.CASEL spreads five core skills known also as CASEL: self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making (CASEL, 2016).Zins et al. (2004) person-centered SEL framework includes the following key elements: (1) Self-awareness: This competence is characterized by the ability to identify and recognize emotions, gather Usakli 29 accurate self-perceptions, recognize strengths, needs, and values, having a sense of self-efficacy, and developing a sense of spirituality, which is usually defined as recognition of one"s place in the world and relation to other things, including the possibility of a higher power or greater creative force.
(2) Social awareness: Social awareness, in other words, realm of relating effectively to other people, includes the ability to take the perspective of another person and to have empathy for him or her (the ability to take a different emotional perspective), an appreciation of human diversity in its various forms, and a healthy and appropriate respect for other people.
(3) Responsible decision making: This skill is about developing the capacity to make decisions in a responsible way; it includes the ability to identify problems and evaluate the situations in which problems arise, use effective problem-solving skills, evaluate and reflect on various alternatives in life, and the development of a sense of personal, moral, and ethical responsibility.
(4) Self-management: Characterized by internal selfregulation skills and the ability to translate them into overt action, self-management includes impulse control, stress management, self-motivation and personal discipline, and the ability to set appropriate goals and organize one"s actions to attain those goals.
(5) Relationship management: Having successful interpersonal relationships requires more than just social awareness; it also requires effective overt skill enactment.Within this realm of SEL competencies, stressed communication, social engagement, cooperation, negotiation, conflict management, as well as helpseeking and help-providing skills were stressed (Merrell and Gueldner, 2010: 9;Zins et al., 2004).
Educators, parents, and policymakers who recognize that the core SEL competencies are necessary for effective life functioning also know these skills can be taught.
Learning more about how extensive research demonstrates that school-based SEL programs can promote and enhance students' connection to school, positive behavior, and academic achievement (CASEL, 2016).For example, a meta-analysis of 213 studies evaluating SEL programming efforts demonstrates its benefits to youths from elementary through high school and across urban, suburban and rural schools in the US (Durlak et al., 2011).Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) is a SEL program for preschool and elementary school designed to increase social and emotional competence; prevent violence, aggression, and other behavior problems; improve critical thinking skills, and enhance classroom climate (Greenberg et al., 1998).Major progress in SEL will likely not happen until the reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act is passed into law which holds schools accountable Educ.Res.Rev.
for the social and emotional development of students (Bracket and Rivers, 2014).
Those that should attend are teachers, school administrators, counselors, psychologists, family therapists, social workers, clergy, youth workers, pediatricians, and childcare professionals (Dunkelblau, 2016).There are many studies" result on the importance and effectiveness of SEL in experimental explications teaching programs from kindergarten to college level ages such as improved attitudes about the self and others, increased prosocial behavior, lower levels of problem behaviors and emotional distress, and improved academic performance (Catalano et al., 2002;Durlak et al., 2011;Greenberg et al., 2003;Zins et al., 2004).
Caring school community, I can solve problem, PATHS, raising healthy children, safe and caring schools, second step: A violence prevention curriculum, social decision, thinking, feeling, and behaving are the successfully conducted SEL programs in the United States (Merrell and Gueldner, 2010: 32-33).
In Turkey, there are a few or no SEL programs.As SEL programs are mainly centered on pre-school and elementary education, it is highly important to find out clue from courses especially textbooks.In Turkish education, pupils devote a good time to social studies.
From elementary school pre-service teachers, social studies course and books, the primary school teacher education program aims to train teachers for public and private schools belonging to the Ministry of Education.Primary School Teacher Education Program lasts for four years.Primary School Teacher Education Program is one of the undergraduate programs provided by the Division of Basic Education.The program lasts for 4 years with 2 semesters per year.Each semester is comprised 15 weeks.The students must complete 4 years of study acquiring 240 ECTS (European credit transfer and accumulation system) credits.
Social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities that promote civic competence.The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world (NCSS, 1994).Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing from such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences.Social studies is the interdisciplinary integration of social science and humanities concepts for the purpose of practicing problem solving and decision making for developing citizenship skills on critical social issues.Zarrillo (2008) indicates that social studies should help students acquire knowledge, master the processes of learning, and become active citizens.The researcher also sums up the main ideas on social studies: it should promote the acceptance of cultural diversity; focus on major events and important individuals; should be issues centered, as students search for answers to problems and dilemmas confronted by people today and in the past; should develop democratic citizens who are more than loyal and patriotic; should focus on the big ideas of social science disciplines, and the essential activity for children is problem solving; should be child centered and permit students to pursue topics of personal interest (Zarrillo, 2008:. 4-6).The aim of this study was find out content of social emotional learning in Turkish elementary social studies text books.This study conducted as qualitative.

METHODOL OGY
This study is designed as qualitative research.21 students from the Department of Elementary Education participated in this study.This university students w ere selected from Sinop Education Faculty in Turkey 2015 to 2016 Spring Semester.The w orking group is familiar w ith SEL as they had five different courses.These are Educational Psychology, Guidance, School Practice, Teaching Practice (I, II), School Experience and Self -Esteem Teaching.The group is highly skilled w ith the author"s studies (Uşaklı, 2015a, b).

Data collection
Tw enty one university students closely investigated 9 social studies textbooks in terms of SEL.The textbooks are related to three different grades.Each grade has three separate books.21 participants w ere divided into three different groups w hich consist of 7 students each.
Five questions w ere asked to the groups.Every group answ ered the questions separately according to grade levels of books.All groups answ ered the questions in w ritten format."Could you indicate w hich activities are suitable for social emotional learning elements or skills", so: (1) Which activities are suitable for self-aw areness?(2) Which activities are suitable for self -management?(3) Which activities are suitable for social aw areness?(4) Which activities are suitable for relationship skills?(5) Which activities are suitable for responsible decision making?There w ere three questions asked to participants as open-ended.These individual interview s w ere recorded.The interview s duration mean is 10 min.210 min interview records w ere transcribed as 32 pages of w ritten data (Times New Roman 12, spacing 1.5).
(1) Do social studies textbooks contain social emotional learning activities in respect to number?(2) Do social studies textbooks contain social emotional learning activities in respect to intensity?(3) Do social studies textbooks contain social emotional learning activities in respect to applicability?

Data analysis and reliability
The tw o terms are sine qua, non for all researches not only quantitative but also qualitative ones.Reliability is a term used in quantitative research to indicate the consistency of measurement.The term is also applied to some qualitative research, particularly that w hich adopts a realist epistemology.In qualitative research, the evaluative criteria that are applied are more commonly transparent and trustw orthy.Validity is the extent to w hich research measures or reflects w hat it claims; w hat is most meaningfully used in research w ith a realist epistemology (Forest, 2011: 108).
The thematic model can be applied to a w ide range of narrative text, including narratives produced in interview s and w ritten documents.The analyst can start the thematic analysis by coding of data openly.The steps in the categorical content analysis described by Lieblich et al. (1998) can be used in the process of thematic analysis.The categorical content analysis focuses on thematic similarities and differences betw een narratives generated in interview s.The analytical approach of Lieblich et al. (1998: 112-113) involves breaking the text into smaller units of content.
Therefore, reliability, validity and triangulation, if they are to be relevant research concepts, particularly from a qualitative point of view , have to be redefined as w e have seen in order to reflect the multiple w ays of establishing truth (Golafshani, 2003: 604).
The answ ers of the groups" questions are gathered as tables.The mean of the answ ers w ere calculated.For example, answ ers of the first grade students on self-aw areness indicated page one activity is suitable for self-aw areness in the first grade book.So tw o groups indication w ere enough for the evaluation of any activity.Written data of individual interview s are coded by three specialists.All specialists have PhD in education.Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making are the factors of social emotional learning.

Nine different
Table 1 indicates the distribution of SEL competencies in terms of grades and books.From the first to the third grades in nine books, there are about 77 self-awareness, 69 self-management, 130 social awareness, 78 relationship skills, and 54 responsible decision making activities.This numbers were obtained from 21 participants" ideas in three groups.Each member presented his or her own idea on any activities in books.
Table 2 illustrates (at the end of the manuscript) the themes, samples, frequencies and percentiles of preservice teachers" ideas on social studies textbooks and workbooks in respect to social emotional learning.20 out of the 21 participants agree that there are activities on SEL in social studies text and work books.18 students from the study group indicate that those activities in books are related with the CASEL" competencies in SEL.These mean that there are activities about selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.Finally, a great deal of the students, that is, 15 students underline that those activities in books are applicable in the classroom setting.
In addition to Table 2, there is an in-depth idea on physical features of activities.For example, one female participant states that, "we examined three years curriculum of social studies lesson.I know that there are 36 school weeks and 4 hours social studies lesson.In the social studies program, if we multiply 36 with 4, we have 144 hours lessons in the first grade.I think that yes, there are activities on SEL, but not enough.Social studies lessons" hours are not enough weekly, from democratic life, friendship, human rights everything in the program."A male participant states his ideas: "I participated in Dr.

Physical
As a small group member and individually I had closely read social studies books.I feel that there are so many activities on SEL.20 95

Content
Activities seem to be suitable for SEL.When we categorized the activities as a group we really deeply think that whether or not any activities are match to selfawareness or others.Eventually we accomplished categorizing.
18 85 Applicability Many drawing illustrations on books about SEL.I think they are easy to group.Apparently understandable feelings, group works and duties.15 71 responsible decision making.These are five basic skills or competence as that association in America (he means CASEL) says.The course books in our country have many activities on SEL and they have these five basic skills that lack order.I think pupils can be muzzy by activities.The main philosophy of SEL is to make order.Selection of activities is important but order is also important.I believe that it is better to bombard studies than to point to SEL in meaningful order."Lastly, a female participant"s idea on applicability is as follows: "After intense workshop on SEL, I really became familiar with SEL.In SEL, I think that the most important point is how we teach the SEL.In some classrooms, there are about 15 students, in others, there are up to 40 students.Young children easily lose their attention.SEL is teaching packed programs in USA, perhaps some special schools can buy such kind of education.What do we teach, how do we teach, when do we teach, are the important questions awaiting our answers."

DISCUSSION
SEL is a very important umbrella term that covers assertiveness, friendship, emotional reading and others (Ellias and Weissberg, 2000).There are a few studies on SEL in Turkey unlike in USA (Uşaklı, 2015a).Social studies lesson seems to be highly related to SEL.Twenty one teacher candidates from elementary school education faculty joined in this intense study on SEL activities in Turkish elementary school social studies text and work books.Social studies is the interdisciplinary integration of social science and humanities concepts for the purpose of practicing problem solving and decision making for developing citizenship skills on critical social issues.
Some important points can be seen as macro issues such as promoting the acceptance of cultural diversity, focusing on major events and important individuals in history and seeking to transmit to young people concepts of liberty and equality, searching for answers to problems and dilemmas confronted by people, developing democratic citizens who are more than loyal and patriotic; good citizens are also critics of, and participants in, their government, focusing on the big ideas of the social science disciplines, and the essential activity for children is problem solving and being child centered and permitting students to pursue topics of personal interest (Zarrillo, 2008).These are macro issues compared to the social emotional learning basic micro competencies of social emotional learning that are self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making (CASEL, 2016).
SEL is concerned with the broad, multidimensional nature of learning and teaching, including the biological, emotional, cognitive and social aspects of learning and teaching (Cooper et al., 2011).It underlines a pedagogy for building social, emotional and resilience skills as well as an "intervention structure which supports the internalization and generalization of skills over time and across contexts according to the child"s development and with the contribution of educators, parents, peers and other significant people (Elias and Moceri, 2012: 427).SEL is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.Brandt"s (1999) comment on the necessity for universal SEL in schools strikes an agreeable chord: social and emotional learning is both a new and very old idea.In all cultures and in every generation, educators and parents have been concerned with children"s sense of well-being and ability to get along with others.Certainly in today"s social environment, teachers have no choice but to attend to their students" personal and social development, even when their first priorities are academic knowledge and skills.
SEL is not only knowledge, but also skill that every teacher should give students and every student has to acquire it.The research clearly states that scientific evidence supports the use of SEL in schools.Three primary areas of research-based positive outcomes of SEL include school attitudes, school behavior, and school performance (Merrell and Gueldner, 2010: 17).
SEL concepts can be integrated into academic programming by capitalizing on the issues that develop during the course of a normal school day.Academic content, such as information presented through literature, can also be applied to social and emotional issues and be used to illustrate SEL concepts.Students may then be asked in a social studies class to use a similar framework for discussing historical or current events, and again in a health class where they are asked to consider how lifestyle choices may affect a variety of health factors and generate possibilities for alternative actions that can lead to positive mental and physical health (Merrell and Gueldner, 2010: 17).
In this study, 21 education faculty elementary departments in fourth grades eighth semester students evaluated nine social studies text and work books in 14 weeks with meeting two hours in a week.University students, selected from Sinop Education Faculty 2015 to 2016 Spring Semester.These students were educated in social emotional learning by author of this manuscript in five different lectures.SEL has an important place in Turkish education system.But the intensity and method of SEL are not arranged in order.From USA to Europe or Australia, SEL has been taught by a wide range of programs (Merrell and Gueldner, 2010;Uşaklı, 2015a).There are many studies on the importance and effectiveness of SEL in experimental explications teaching programs from kindergarten to college level ages results such as improved attitudes about the self and others, increased prosocial behavior, lower levels of problem behaviors and emotional distress, and improved academic performance (Catalano et al., 2002;Durlak et al., 2011;Greenberg et al., 2003;Zins et al., 2004).Goleman (1995) started a new understanding based on emotional intelligence.Many researchers point out the importance of social emotional learning to students, not only for their well-being, but also their academic success (Elias, 2004;Weissberg, 2004).From United States to Europe and Australia, there are many wide ranges of SEL programs supply on need (Elias and Moceri, 2012;Dracinschi, 2012;Haxby Brady, 2010;Schonert-Reichl and Hymel, 2007).There is shortage of SEL studies in Turkey (Uşaklı, 2015a).
The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not Turkish elementary school social studies textbooks contain SEL contents.What is the opinion of the group who scrutinizes this purpose on SSTBs?Twenty one Turkish fourth grade students from Faulty of Elementary Education participated in this study during the spring semester.This working group is familiar with SEL.Four different university courses containing SEL were delivered by these students.The data were collected from 9 different SSTBs.In addition to this, the working group wrote semi structured questionnaire.Content analysis was used to analyze individual forms and transcribed group interviews.Triangulation was used to ensure that the idea from individual forms and group interviews suits each other.Three specialists" code confirmation was another technique used to detect reliability.Randomly selected three participants" check was used for reliability.There is a great deal of SEL activities in SSTBs according to the pre-service students.Physical, content and applicability are the three different main themes found in this study.Order, intensity and instruction are sub-themes related to the main themes.Disorder, random, inequality understanding, insufficiency, surface, and exhausting are also found in this study as cell units.These findings provide some evidence that the importance of SEL is known by Turkish educator so they devote their attention to SSTBs.Although, there are many activities in SSTBs, some problems are apparent.According to the university students, these problems in SSTBs arise from physical, content and applicability of SEL activities scrutinized.The balance between activities about SELL in SSTBs should be supplied.Careful selection must be done according to experimental research.The kind of techniques such as brain storming, group work, discussion or drama that will be used in teaching SEL activities to elementary students should be determined.Turkish elementary school social studies text book and work books can be remedial for the gap in any comprehensive SEL program in Turkey.There are activities about self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making activities in the books.Physical, that is , number of activities; content, that is, conformity of activities to the CASEL basic competencies; and applicability, that is, whether any activity from book can be conducted in classroom setting are the issues investigated in this study.
Future studies should be conducted on the intensity, number of activity and distribution of skills of SEL in SSTB.Do the activities in SSTB affect SEL of students?How do the teachers teach the activities of SEL?Besides teachers" teaching strategies, how are parents and peers at home and school occupied with the SSTB"s activities, are the other issues that should be born in mind in future studies.Apart from pictures, short videos, classroom games, real life situations and drama with SEL can be other research interests for SEL to be taught effectively.

Table 1 .
Grade, book and page number distribution of elementary social studies textbook and w orkbooks activities in terms of social emotional learning factors.

Table 2 .
The themes, samples, frequencies and percentiles of pre-service teachers" ideas on social studies textbook and Workbooks in respect to social emotional learning.