Willingness to teach: a look at perceptions of incorporation of social skills in the classroom

Social skills have been considered as an indicator for long-term success in personal, academic, and professional arenas. Social skills training programs have long been in demand in schools in spite of modest success. This study explored elementary school teacher perceptions of the importance of social skills and their willingness to incorporate social skills training in general classroom instruction. A total of 116 teachers were surveyed about what skills they deemed as critical and how the importance was predictive of teachers? willingness to incorporate social skills training into curriculum. Results suggested that teachers valued self-control significantly more than cooperation and assertion skills. Value of a specific social skill, however, was not a significant factor in terms of willingness to teach that skill. Implications were discussed in the context of school settings.