INVESTIGATING TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES WITH DIGITAL CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND INCORPORATING SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

The research on classroom management in general is numerous, yet the connection between digitization, classroom management, and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has been understudied. The current study explored how primary school teachers managed their digital classrooms while incorporating social and emotional learning into their classroom management practices in the remote teaching period. The study not only examined the classroom management strategies and procedures employed but also investigated teachers’ beliefs and perceptions about managing digital classrooms. The study was carried out with 145 primary school teachers teaching in school grades 1st-4th from five different public schools by adopting stratified random sampling. The data were collected via written responses of the participants with the closed, fixed-response, and standardized open-ended forms developed by the researcher. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were used in the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The findings revealed that the majority of teachers led online classroom management processes similar to their face-to-face experiences but were less effective concerning the developmental needs of each student in the digital classroom. Furthermore, the study yielded insight into the stress factors and protective factors within the context of classroom management incorporating SEL, and it provided direction for future implementations concerning teachers’ professional learning needs and expectations.