Investigation of the effect of "I can succesed preschools" social emotional learning program on social skills, peer relationships and executive functions of preschool children

This research purpose to examine the effect of the "I Can Succesed Preschools" Social Emotional Learning Program on the social skills, peer relationships and executive functions of preschool children. In the research, mixed research design, in which quantitative and qualitative research methods are used together, was used. The sample of the research consisted of 94 children selected by the purposeful sampling method among the preshool children. 47 of the children were determined as the experimental group and 47 as the control group. In the collection of research data, "General Information Form" to obtain demographic information about children and their families, "Social Skills Development System" developed by Gresham and Elliott (2008) and adapted into Turkish by Tutkun ve Dinçer (2019) to evaluate children's social skills. "Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale Teacher Form" developed by Fantuzzo, Mendez and Tighe (1998) to evaluate children's peer relationships and adapted into Turkish by Ahmetoğlu, Acar and Aral (2017) and Downes et al. (2017) and adapted into Turkish by Büyükkaymaz and Yıldız-Bıçakcı (2021), "Preschool Executive Functions Task Evaluation" forms were used. As a result of the research, it was determined that there was a significant difference in the social skills and peer relations of the children in the experimental group to whom the "I Can Succesed Preschools" Social Emotional Learning Program was applied (p<.01), although there was no significant difference in the executive function skills, when the mean rank of the experimental and control groups were taken into account, the executive function of the experimental group was determined. It is seen that their skills are higher (p>.05). In addition, it was observed that the effect of the education was preserved with the permanence test applied to the experimental group four weeks after the posttest (p>.05). The opinions of the teachers in the experimental group are that the "I Can Succesed Preschools" Social Emotional Learning Program applied to the children; social-emotional skills such as communication with peers, cooperation, sharing, understanding and expressing emotions; it positively affected executive function skills such as waiting for one's turn, postponing requests when necessary, keeping instructions in mind and adapting to innovations.