Competent and Responsive Education (CaRE) Toolkit for Learners’ Psychosocial Needs

Abstract

This developmental research aimed to create a guidance toolkit based on the level of teachers’ mental health, social, and emotional competences; and on the extent of learners’ psychosocial needs as perceived by teachers. Stratified and cluster samplings were employed to determine the 135 teachers who answered the Questionnaire on Teacher Competences and Psychosocial Needs validated by experts with reliability coefficients of .914 to .972. The fishbowl technique and purposive sampling were used to determine the evaluators of the toolkit who included the 32 teachers and seven experts in the fields of education, psychology, guidance, and counselling respectively. The data gathered were analyzed using frequency count, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Overall the teachers have high mental, social, and emotional competences, and perceived learners as having high need for teacher assistance and guidance in promoting their psychosocial well-being. The CaRE Toolkit is composed of ten modules. Module 1 presents the rationale of competent and responsive education; and the need for teachers to develop the three competences. Module 2 discusses elementary children’s’ psychosocial development and general strategies to support learners’ socio-emotional needs. Modules 3 to 10 present key concepts related to learners’ psychosocial needs and provide teachers with strategies to address them. The CaRE Toolkit was rated outstanding by both experts and teachers in terms of its physical attributes, objectives, content, usefulness, and self-help features. Elementary teachers may use the toolkit to better address the psychosocial needs of learners. Moreover, they are encouraged to pursue graduate studies and trainings that will enhance their knowledge and skills in supporting learners’ socioemotional needs and holistic development in general.