Developing SEL in student teachers: The role of mentors

This chapter discusses how Self-Determination Theory (SDT), an empir-ically proven theory about human motivation, development, and wellness, supports the principles of social and emotional learning (SEL) within the context of student teachers fulfilling their teaching practice. Based on the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, SDT views the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs as promoting growth, development, and overall wellness, and thwarting these needs will result in diminished growth and wellness. This view means that any social contexts that support the satisfaction of these basic needs can better promote and support positive development. In contrast, social contexts that hinder the satisfaction of these needs will most likely affect human functioning negatively. As part of a more extensive study to investigate the development of teacher professional identity in student teachers, interviews with 14 student teachers revealed the impor-tance of need-supportive mentors in fostering the skills and competencies related to SEL in student teachers undergoing their teaching practice. It is put forth that more could be done to inform and educate mentors about the critical impact they have on fostering SEL competencies in student teachers through the support of their basic psychological needs.