Teachers' social and emotional competence: A new approach of teacher education in Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract In the last two decades more and more studies have emphasized the central role of teachers' social and emotional competence in their teaching performance. In spite of this, there are not enough programs focused on developing teachers' social and emotional competence that are integrated into teacher education. This is particularly true in Vietnam where the concepts of social and emotional competence (SEC) and social and emotional learning (SEL) are rather new. In the study, we present four main emerging impact aspects of teachers' SEC including teachers' well-being and career motivation, teacher-student relationship, classroom management, and the effectiveness of SEL implementation. The article gives some recommendations for teacher education regarding SEC issue in Vietnam as well. These recommendations would contribute to develop a new approach of teacher education to meet the country's new general education curriculum enacted in 2020.