Abstract:

Social emotional learning of teachers is crucial both to teachers and their students. Thus, teachers’ professional development should focus on cognitive, emotional, and social skills in order to promote teachers’ identity formation through their personal development process. Teacher professional development is a life-long process that begins in teachers’ education. The Biographical Narrative, the story about our lives, was chosen as a method with the potential to promote personal development.

Eighteen preservice teachers participated in a workshop focusing on emotional and social skills as part of professional development process and shared their Biographical Narrative with the group. Data from the reflections of 12 participants were collected and analyzed qualitatively.

The purpose of the study was to understand preservice teachers’ perceptions about their professional development, and the contribution of the Biographical Narrative to the social emotional learning of the tellers, the listeners, and the group.

The findings revealed that the participants related to cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of their development in the reflections. The developmental process occurs throughout all stages of the method—planning, performance, and reflection. In addition, the Biographical Narrative influenced not only the tellers, but also the listeners and the group. Implications will be discussed regarding teachers’ professional development as preservice teachers and as teachers in their work in schools.

Keywords:

Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Preservice Teachers, Biographical Narrative, Teacher Education, personal story.